A New Princess Arisen
by PSVT
Summary: The Dark Kingdom remains a dangerous foe, especially with their new plan. But, for some of the senshi, regaining Usagi's friendship and trust is an even greater struggle. Earth's fate depends on Usagi's desire to find and forgive them… before time runs out.
1. At the Beginning of the Long Road

_At the end of _The Princess that Never Was: _Queen Beryl had managed to capture Usagi and convinced her to use the Silver Crystal in an attempt to travel to the past and undo the actions that led to the current war. After learning of the princess's capture, Makoto and the Outer Senshi infiltrated the Dark Kingdom with Zoisite's unwitting assistance. They fought their way to Beryl's throne room, doing tremendous damage to the evil queen's secret plan in the process._

_Per Usagi's last request, Kunzite and Sazaratha captured Rei and Minako and brought them to the Dark Kingdom so that Usagi could speak to them one last time. Even then, they refused to see Usagi as their princess until her transformation left no more doubt in their minds._

_Usagi's attempt to use the Silver Crystal was interrupted and ultimately stymied by the arrival of the senshi and the timely intervention of the previous Princess Serenity. The knowledge that the only result of her ill-fated mission was her own death spurred her to fight on as Sailor Moon. The senshi's battle against Beryl's forces was fierce and chaotic, but the senshi ultimately departed with a partial victory. Not only had they purified Kunzite, but they also rescued Ami from a demise they had thought was all but certain. On the other hand, Beryl still had her youmas gathering energy for Metalia's revival, and they faced the prospect of seeing hundreds more of those horrible creatures with no clear way of stopping them._

_However, an even more difficult task awaited some of the senshi. For Makoto, Minako, and Rei, repairing their fractured relationship with Usagi did not occur upon rescuing her from Beryl's clutches. In fact, for them, it was a struggle that had only just begun._

* * *

**1 | At the Beginning of the Long Road**

Saeko's weary sigh seemed to echo throughout the house, followed by a sharp bang as the handle of her rolling suitcase smacked against the floor. She barely seemed to notice the report or the haphazard placement of her luggage as she sought out a nearby chair. Upon finding a comfortable position, the woman tilted her head back and drifted her gaze toward the ceiling. It did not take long for her to slip into yet another spell of deep contemplation, one of several that had afflicted her that evening. That she had even managed to function long enough to pack the suitcase and haul it down the stairs was a minor miracle.

"_Does any of this matter anymore? Given what those monsters did to my daughter, I can't believe that Usagi is alive now. I mean, I want to think so, but…"_

Tears began to stream down her cheeks, but she knocked them away with a hand and forcefully shook her head.

"_No, I can't give up on her. Not yet. And, even if the worst happened and she truly is dead, I made a promise to her that I would follow through with the plan. That means getting to Kyoto and ensuring that her family is safe. Nothing will prevent me from fulfilling my promise to her."_

Her newfound resolve was the fuel she used to push herself away from the chair and march up the stairs where a second suitcase awaited her. She had stuffed the first bag to the seams with clothing, far more than she would usually take for a business trip. Not even for a full vacation, something she had not enjoyed since entering medical school many years ago, would she have packed that much clothes. Yet, a similar fate awaited the second piece in the luggage set, one that was larger than the first. Both were necessary, as she did not intend to return from her journey west.

"_There, finished."_ She rested her hands on her hips as a frown marred her lips. _"Now, all I have to do is get this behemoth down the stairs."_

Like its brethren, the small coasters at the bottom of the suitcase were of little use once she reached the steps. No amount of cursing her past buying decisions or wishing for larger wheels was going to help her, and she knew it. However, her mind did manage to construct a solution to her conundrum that was one part unorthodox and one part blatantly obvious.

"_Maybe I can just push this thing down the stairs. It's not like it'll matter much in the end anyway. Besides, it's just clothes and a few toiletries, so there's nothing to damage."_

Normally she would not consider such logic sound, but the series of loud booms said otherwise. She could not help but smirk as she saw the suitcase lying upside down at the end of the stairs, propped up against its mate. However, she did not spend much time admiring her handiwork as she knew there was one more bag left to pack. Minutes later, she stood in the living room wearing the smaller shoulder bag that she had filled with important financial papers and other related items.

"_Well, packing's done. All that's left is loading all this stuff into the trunk."_ She winced the moment her gaze fell upon the two larger suitcases. _"I can see already that it's going to be a pain, but I don't have any time to waste grousing about it."_

That did not stop her from groaning the moment she lifted the handle for the smaller of the two pieces of luggage. She took a deep breath and exhaled it at the same time she gave the heavy thing a hard yank, freeing it from its confines beneath the other bag. From there, it was a short walk through the dining room, out the back door, and to the garage. As she marched she weighed in her mind the advantages and disadvantages of loading the bags one at a time or waiting until both were near the car before exerting the energy to lift them into the trunk.

That was when metal and plastic slammed against wood, swiftly followed by a sharp gasp. Then, there were the quick patters of footsteps that shot toward the rear of the house.

"_Did I just hear what I think I heard?"_

Though it was not her initial intent, her question might as well have been a probe of her current sanity. She pulled back one of the curtains and peeked outside, but all she could see was the rear of a navy blue sedan. Of course, that alone would have been enough to pique her curiosity given the fact she owned no such vehicle. However, it was supplanted by the sounds that had sent her scurrying there in the first place. It was both familiar and completely unexpected, and from her current location it was somewhat difficult to perceive. At least, that was the case until the deep grumble from the strange car's engine ceased, and then the sounds became crystal clear. She recognized those mellifluous tones as easily as she could distinguish day from night, and yet she still thought she had lost her mind.

"_It can't be… I… I must be dreaming this."_

Neither her age nor her exhaustion were impediments to her as she raced to the door and tugged on the handle to pull it open. Standing before her was ultimate confirmation of what she considered merely a presumption, and an outlandish one at that. Yet, she hesitated, unsure of whether her eyes were playing tricks on the rest of her conscious mind.

"A-Ami…?"

The subject of her tentative question did not waver when she ran up to the woman and tightly wrapped her arms around her.

"Mama!"

Tears immediately welled in Saeko's eyes and streamed down her cheeks as she bent down to embrace her daughter as securely as she could manage. Those were elated tears, an absolute contrast from her far more miserable weeping from the prior night and many other times that same day. The two hugged for almost a minute, neither one wanting to let go for fear that they might lose each other once again. It was only when Saeko noticed the other four people behind the blue-haired girl that she relented and slowly released her hold.

"It turned out she wasn't dead after all," Usagi cheerfully said as beaming smile overtook her lips.

"Usagi-san!" Saeko went to hug with equal fervor the girl whose life she feared was lost along with her daughter's. "How did you manage to escape? What happened to you? What happened to Ami? Who are these people?" The questions came in a rapid-fire manner. Ami turned a confused expression to Usagi as she had no idea why her mother would ask the girl such pointed and informed questions.

"It's a long story." The reply was one that applied both to Ami and her mother. "However, I promise I'll tell you everything as soon as we're inside."

The group slowly filtered into the house and gathered around the dining room table. Usagi and Ami sat down in the chairs with Luna calmly perched in the blonde's lap. Haruka, Michiru, and Kunzite preferred to stand near the back of the room despite the presence of more than enough seats for everyone to comfortably sit. They felt it improper to interfere with the joyful reunion of a parent with a child she believed was forever lost. Saeko took advantage of their reticence to move one of the chairs closer to her daughter so she could hold the girl's hand while Usagi spoke. It only made sense given her absence and presumed death that she would want tangible assurance of Ami's existence.

"I'm so happy to see you again," Saeko told her horribly perplexed Ami. "I truly thought you were dead. We all thought you were dead."

"Who do you mean by 'we'?"

"Myself, Usagi-san, and her parents. Usagi-san told us everything about you being a Sailor Senshi and about her being Princess Serenity. She also told us everything about how the other girls abandoned her and attacked her. We all were convinced that Zoisite killed you last night. The thought that I may never be able to see you and hold you again absolutely devastated me."

The confession caused Ami's eyes to widen even further, this time in shock that her mother was aware of the whole dangerous mess she had to endure as a senshi. Her surprise soon transformed into profound melancholy. Kunzite also was startled by the mention of his former colleague by a person he otherwise thought was a mere civilian, but he managed to conceal his astonishment behind a stone-faced expression.

"I didn't know what was happening to me," Ami whispered. "It was very difficult for me to breathe or to see, let alone move. Before the moment I'm sure I lost consciousness, I thought about what you would be going through if I didn't find some way out. I wasn't afraid of dying, but I was absolutely scared of what would happen to you if I did die and you had no idea how or why."

"I don't know what I would have done in that circumstance. For that I'm eternally grateful for Usagi-san and her astounding wealth of compassion. If it weren't for her, I'm sure I'd be a lot worse off."

She then turned a small yet heartfelt smile to the pigtailed blonde that was answered by an equally warm grin. "I'm very glad you're okay as well. We were worried for you after your text message. I didn't know what they were going to do to you after capturing you. In my mind I assumed that they were going to kill you as soon as they found you. It was difficult thinking you were gone and everything we did wouldn't matter anymore, but I remembered what you told me to do and the promise I made to you and thus I continued with the plan."

"Plan?" Ami's puzzled gaze shifted between her mother and Usagi.

"We had a plan to move Usagi-san and her family out of Juuban after the Dark Kingdom attacked them."

"Wait… The Dark Kingdom attacked Usagi-chan's family?" Her shout of dismay awakened Luna, who looked at her charge with a similar expression of horror on her face.

Usagi slowly nodded. "The Dark Kingdom knows everything about us. I don't know exactly why they attacked them, but I feel it was to send a message to me."

"The point of the attack was to weaken you and eliminate your will to continue fighting by taking away from you those you loved most," Kunzite said in a low baritone that revealed his utter remorse. "I'm very sorry for having ordered that attack against your parents." The explanation and apology earned him a questioning glare from the older brunette.

"That's Kunzite," Usagi calmly replied, drawing Saeko's attention away from the nervous man and back to her in the form of an alarmed stare. "It's okay. He's working with us now that I've finally purified him."

"And we're fellow senshi," Michiru followed with a brief yet welcoming wave of her hand. "I'm Kaiou Michiru, or Sailor Neptune, and my partner Tenou Haruka is Sailor Uranus." The sandy-haired blonde curtly nodded in salutation.

"So, Kunzite was the one who attacked your family?" Luna asked, an action that momentarily startled Saeko before she remembered that the cat could speak.

"I wasn't the one who carried out the attack," Kunzite said. "It was done by a being called Sazaratha."

"Who is she?" Usagi asked. Both Ami and her mother echoed their desire to know the same information by giving the general a pair of focused stares.

"She's one of the original servants of Queen Metalia and, as of now, Beryl's lone remaining general. The most important thing about her is that, unlike any of the original Shitennou or Beryl, she's not human. She has the ability to disguise herself as a human by taking the form of that person's body. Unfortunately that results in the death of the person whose figure she steals."

A stunned silence filled the room at the revelation that, despite the diligent work of the senshi, precious souls already had been lost in the conflict. They were fatalities that, until that moment, had gone unnoticed by anyone and, most likely, would remain mysteries to those who were not intimately involved in the war.

"So… that nurse who captured me… she's actually… actually…?" Usagi hesitantly turned a dismal glance toward her former adversary as she spoke.

"An innocent victim of Sazaratha. I'm sorry to say so."

"What else can this Sazaratha do?" Michiru asked more determinedly.

"Possess inanimate objects, and sometimes living creatures as well, and use them to attack unsuspecting targets," Kunzite replied. "Another of her skills is learning an opponent's attack and using it against them. A pertinent example is what happened to Sailor Venus when Sazaratha and I were ordered to capture the transformation brooch and the remaining guardian senshi. She used a modified version of Venus's 'Love me Chain' attack that used three chains instead of the usual single chain. However, she put so much dark energy into the attack that it almost killed the girl with a single hit."

"And that was the same attack she used against Zoisite, right?" Usagi asked, eliciting a curt nod from Kunzite in reply.

"What happened to Zoisite?" Ami was beyond confused, though it helped that everyone around her could plainly understand why.

"Sazaratha killed him before Usagi could purify him in the same way she healed me," Kunzite said. "I don't know why she did that, but I have a feeling that there's going to be some conflict within the Dark Kingdom between Sazaratha and Beryl. The two never fully trusted one another."

"But… that's a good thing, right?" Haruka asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm not entirely sure. Even if there's some friction between the two, they're still fighting for very similar goals," Kunzite responded. "That means they're still extremely dangerous, and we can't let up against them, especially with their new strategy."

"The youma army," Usagi said apprehensively. Ami turned a curious gaze to the pigtailed blonde that prompted her to expound further. "Beryl is creating an army of thousands of youmas—"

"Fifteen hundred to be exact," Michiru nonchalantly interjected.

"Fifteen hundred youmas to use for gathering energy," Usagi finished. "Many more than we've ever fought before."

"If there's any good news, it's that it will take a few months before most of the youmas are ready to be deployed," Kunzite remarked with only the smallest hint of optimism in his voice.

Saeko shared the man's anxiety. "That means we have some time to… do something to prepare against the onslaught."

"But what do we do?" Ami asked.

"Unfortunately, I don't quite know the answer to that question," Kunzite said.

Michiru's eyes widened the instant the idea leaped into her mind. "Can't you teleport us back into the Dark Kingdom?"

The silver-haired man dejectedly shook his head. "That requires dark energy, which I no longer possess. Otherwise, that would have been my preferred choice of attack."

"Certainly, we can't take them on all at once, even with my added power," Usagi said with a similarly gloomy tone as she fell forward into a dejected slouch. "Maybe a few at a time, but if there's no way to stop the Dark Kingdom from creating and releasing more youmas, it'll ultimately be a lost cause."

"In any case, I think we can't spend too much time worrying about that. Not when we have a train to catch," Michiru said.

Usagi snapped upright as the turquoise-haired woman's comment reminded her why she was there in the first place. "You're right, Michiru-san. I'm sure that in a few months we can find some way to stop them. But right now I need something to wear besides this… awful thing." She frowned as she gazed at the morbid black robes she continued to wear.

"Your clothes should still be upstairs in your room," Saeko said. "I didn't know whether I should pack it or not. I didn't know if you would return…" By that time fresh tears welled at the base of her eyes and threatened to spill down her cheeks.

"I did return." Usagi's voice was as comforting as the warm gaze she pointed at the sullen woman. "Despite everything that happened to me, and what I almost did to myself, I did come back."

"I'm glad." Saeko leaned toward the blonde and pulled her into a tight hug. "I can't imagine what my life would be like without either you or Ami."

Usagi's face turned bright red upon hearing Saeko's adoring words. She turned to Ami, only to see the blue-haired girl smile at her while exhibiting an equally furious blush on her cheeks. The girl did not know just how close the relationship between her best friend and her mother had become over a remarkably short time until she witnessed that scene. However, the knowledge only seemed to make her feel happier as opposed to worried or, worse, jealous.

"Anyway, you need to hurry up and get some clothes packed," Saeko said more cheerfully as she gently pulled away from Usagi and turned to her daughter, enveloping her once again in a loving embrace. "And you need to get some clothes packed, too."

Ami emphatically nodded as both she and Usagi rose from their chairs and ran up the stairs, with Luna sprinting behind them. As the pair disappeared from view, Saeko slowly approached the two women and Kunzite.

"Thank you so much for helping to rescue Usagi-san and my daughter," she said to the pair of senshi. She then turned her eyes to Kunzite, who flinched at the sudden attention paid to him. "Even though you did so much to hurt the two of them, let alone many other people I deeply care about, your decision to help us now redeems you in my opinion."

"I sincerely apologize—" He was interrupted by the brunette's slowly shaking head.

"There's no need to apologize or feel badly about the things you did then. Given that Usagi-san purified you, it means it's highly unlikely that you were fully responsible for your evil mindset."

"Beryl, with the assistance of Metalia's energy, placed us under a spell that forced us to work for her," he said softly. "Otherwise, we Shitennou were extremely loyal to our prince and would not have obliged that woman, especially after she turned evil."

"Wait, so you're saying that Beryl wasn't evil beforehand?"

Kunzite shook his head in reply and opened his mouth to speak but was beaten to the punch by the two women standing beside him.

"She was supposed to be Endymion's wife and the Queen of Earth in the past life," Michiru coolly interjected. "They were engaged to be married before he called off the wedding."

"Apparently Endymion found Serenity more appealing than Beryl," Haruka added more derisively, expelling a short huff. "Not that I can blame him for _that_, but if he hadn't broken Beryl's heart then we wouldn't be in this mess."

"All of that, unfortunately, is true," Kunzite said. "That incident utterly depressed Beryl and weakened her, thus giving Metalia a perfect host through which she could enact her plan."

"And what plan was that?" Saeko asked.

"Conquering the Earth and making it part of her collection of dominated planets. Of course, that wasn't what Beryl intended. She wanted to enact revenge against the Silver Millennium and to regain Endymion's love, and she felt she needed Metalia's power to achieve both. If she had learned of Metalia's true intentions, I doubt she would have allowed the infernal being to control her as it currently does. By that same logic, she wouldn't have promoted Sazaratha to her position of power within the Dark Kingdom."

Michiru stared at Kunzite in wide-eyed disbelief. "So, what you're saying is Beryl _doesn't_ want to destroy the planet?"

"That's correct. She wants to rule it with Endymion at her side. It's why she never allowed us to harm Mamoru in any way during our battles and would harshly reprimand us if we ever came close to injuring the man."

"If you knew about Metalia's true plans, then why didn't you warn Beryl about Sazaratha?" Haruka skeptically asked.

"She has a point," Michiru quickly added in the same questioning manner. "If the Dark Kingdom succeeds in gathering enough energy to revive Metalia, and Sazaratha somehow overthrows Beryl, then the whole planet may be doomed."

"Sazaratha's promotion was more a dire act of necessity, given our shortage of leadership at the time." He exhaled a rueful sigh. "Furthermore, I didn't know just how much of a threat she was to the Dark Kingdom until today. Beryl thought she could command her respect and loyalty, and I thought I could contain her. I guess both of us were wrong."

"It's okay," Saeko said. "I'm sure all of us will find a way to defeat Sazaratha… _and_ Beryl, especially now that we have Usagi-san back with us."

The general nodded. "If anything, it'll be her overwhelming power that will get us through this."

"So… just to change subjects," Haruka said rather abruptly, "I assume you're leaving for Kyoto as well, right?"

"Yes. I have to look over Usagi-san's parents while they remain in the hospital as well as find a place for us to live," Saeko replied. "The plan for the interim is for Usagi-san and her family to stay with her aunt, while Ami and I live with my parents. However, I don't want to be a burden on them for very long, and thus we need to have our own place."

"I see," Michiru said. She closed her eyes as she probed her mind for any answer to the question she asked herself. "No, I don't know anyone who lives in Kyoto or has an open house there."

"How were you going to get there?" Haruka asked.

"By train, obviously," Saeko replied with a brief chuckle. "How else would you travel to Kyoto? Driving is completely out of the question, especially at this time of evening."

Michiru turned a playful smirk to her red-faced and uncharacteristically demure lover. "Unless your name is Tenou Haruka."

"I figured it would be a good idea to have an automobile available there… for various reasons."

"That may be true, but the drive is way too long," Saeko said.

"And uncomfortable, especially in a car that small," Kunzite added with a bit of a scowl.

Haruka grumbled as she turned her gaze to the ground. "Okay, okay… I get it. It's no fun for you all. I can't help that I love to drive. So what?" She huffed as she snapped her head back up and glared at them while standing with arms akimbo. Her complaints merely elicited another round of friendly laughter.

"Anyway, it's definitely a good thing to have you all here, if only so that it's much easier to transport all of our bags to the station," Saeko said with a smile directed at the trio. "I was going to park nearby Tokyo Station as it would have been a pain to haul that much luggage, but with extra hands, we may be able to take the subway."

"I think it may be a good idea to drive part of the way there, if only to conceal the fact that Usagi is here and with you," Kunzite said. "There remains the possibility that they're looking for her, and it would be prudent to ensure that she's not detected."

"I could just use the disguise pen." Usagi had returned, and she no longer donned those awful drab black robes. In their place she wore a far more tolerable light-blue skirt and white blouse. "As long as it's not obvious that it's me, then it should buy us at least a little bit of time."

"That very well may work," Saeko said. "It would be similar to what happened yesterday morning, when that strange woman—who I'm now convinced was Sazaratha—completely failed to recognize you despite bowling you over."

Kunzite pointed his eyes at his feet as a rather sheepish expression befell him. "I remember that. She wasn't too happy with me after that incident, as she thought I led her astray or gave her bad information about Usagi's energy signature."

"Energy signature?" Ami asked as she reached the bottom of the stairs with a rolling suitcase that matched the one Usagi carried.

Kunzite looked up at the girl and nodded. "The prince, princess, senshi, and magic-wielding members of the Dark Kingdom all emit unique auras which allow anyone with sufficient power and skill to detect them without necessarily being able to see them. It enabled me, when I unfortunately worked with them, to penetrate disguises and locate the senshi from great distances or through walls and other obstacles. However, Usagi's energy signature had changed between the last time I encountered her as an adversary and when Sazaratha found her."

"I understand," Ami said before lowering her head in trepidation. "But then that means the disguise pen will not hide her aura, leaving her open to detection."

"That may be the case, but as Usagi hinted, they may ignore us if there's no immediate reason to suspect that she's there."

"How far from a person can you detect this aura?" Saeko asked.

"Typically it's no more than three meters for any of the senshi, although for Usagi I can feel her energy from ten meters away."

"How is that range affected by speed?"

"The detection range greatly decreases with speed, if only because the initial signal is so fleeting that it's difficult to determine if there was anything there at all." Though they were simple to answer, he found the stream of sudden questions perplexing. "Why do you ask?"

"I figure it may be necessary for us to drive after all." Her voice carried a small amount of disappointment. "If they happen to stumble upon us it would be easier for them to track us if we're moving slowly by walking than if we're driving."

"I agree," Michiru said, sharply nodding her head.

"Besides, if we manage to make it to the subway station undetected it's highly unlikely that Sazaratha would be there," Kunzite added with a tiny smirk on his lips. "She's the last member of the Dark Kingdom, besides Beryl, who could feel such auras. However, she absolutely hates being around large groups of people in enclosed spaces."

"In that case, I recommend that we start loading the cars, and quickly," Luna abruptly said, drawing everyone's stunned stare. "I sense we're not alone."

Usagi closed her eyes, dimly glowing pink as she slipped into deep concentration. Her involuntary nervous swallow was readily audible in the silence of the room. "I can feel negative energy close to here, but it's really faint."

"Is it Sazaratha?" Saeko asked. Her voice carried far more apprehension than the blonde's.

After a few more seconds the girl finally answered, preceding her words with a light sigh. "No. It doesn't feel anything like her."

"Aw, that sucks," Haruka said, shaking her head in mock disappointment. "I was really hoping for another opportunity to royally kick her ass."

Kunzite was not so flippant about the matter. "I would not be so enthusiastic about rushing into a conflict with that demon."

"Why not?" Michiru asked. Latent anger lingered in her tone. "We were clearly beating her before she ran away."

"There is a lot more you two have to learn about Sazaratha, but now is not the time for that. After all there is a youma out there that could ruin our plans if we're not careful."

"After everything we've gone through so far, you really think a measly youma can threaten us?"

He calmly shook his head. "Certainly not, so long as it doesn't realize the princess is here."

"Hey!" The fierce glower Usagi directed at Kunzite momentarily sent a shiver through the man. "It's not like I can't defeat a youma on my own."

"I don't doubt that one bit, Usagi. However, you fighting the youma might complicate your plans of escaping undetected, as it would present a glowing beacon to the Dark Kingdom that you're here right now."

Haruka punched her palm with her fist before turning a quick glance to her lover. "Hell, we'll do it, then. Besides, they should be rather surprised to see us again."

"But…" One corner of his lip slowly curled upward into a smirk as he realized the implications of her statement, even if she had not. "Hmm, I see what you mean."

The curious gaze Saeko turned to the two women had less to do with what Kunzite had suspected and more to do with the underlying mechanism behind it. "Wait. How is it possible that they don't know about you? I thought they knew about all of the senshi."

"It's because we only awakened as senshi earlier today," Michiru said. "We seemed to miss whatever event that allowed them to find out about the others."

Haruka was already at the rear door, brandishing her Lip Rod as she turned to the rest of the group. "Anyway, let's go kill this thing so we can get out of here."

"Be careful," Luna said, jumping up onto the nearby dinner table. "There are actually two youmas approaching us from opposite directions, as far as I can tell."

The feline's warning prompted not anxiety but a mischievous grin from Michiru as she retrieved her Lip Rod from her purse and headed for the other door. "Wow! It must be our lucky day. Isn't that right, Haruka-chan?"

"Absolutely." Haruka's smile nearly echoed her partner's, though it was slightly more feral. "It means I don't have to share."

The two women shared a chuckle as they departed the house in their separate directions. Ami and Usagi turned to one another and shrugged, each awash with confusion, although they were not alone in feeling that emotion. Saeko was the one who returned some semblance of organization to the group and set them in motion once again.

"Hmm… I guess we should start loading the cars while they're busy."

Kunzite recognized the consternation in the doctor's face as her gaze alternated between the two rolling suitcases. "I imagine they're rather heavy. I can take them for you if you'd like."

"Thanks, Kunzite-san." Her smile, though tiny and barely noticeable, was one of genuine gratitude. "You can put those in the trunk of my car. I figure the girls' luggage can fit in Tenou-san's car, once she returns." She then chuckled. "I only met her a few minutes ago, but I can already tell she wouldn't be the type who'd let anyone else touch her car, never mind potentially damage it."

The two walked out of the rear door, with Kunzite dragging the pair of rolling suitcases behind him. Given that her hands were free, she opened the door to the garage for him with one hand while pushing a button on her key fob with the other. Parked inside the impeccably clean space was her Mercedes E350 sedan with its trunk already slightly open. That much she anticipated, so it was clear that was not what caused her to freeze in place and stare blankly into space with widened eyes. She barely registered the fact that Kunzite had run into her, not expecting the woman to not progress further through the doorway.

"Is there something wrong?" he asked.

It took her a few moments to sense that someone had spoken, and even then she could only respond in a shaky whisper. "I swear I turned the lights off the last time I was in here."

Kunzite unceremoniously dropped the bags and pushed his way around the doctor, shielding her with his body. "I'm sure you did. We're not alone here." A sword materialized in his right hand. "Show yourself!"

Sure enough, his concern was validated by the presence of a young woman who swiftly stood from her low crouch on the other side of the car. The interloper initially stared back at him with a look of utter surprise, though it soon morphed, first to fright before finally settling on anger. That fury presented itself in her tense posture and warped visage as she finally addressed with a snarl the man standing in the way of her only avenue of escape.

"Our queen will not be happy to see that you've turned traitor. I'll make sure that she finds out. It'll be a miracle that you live for one more day after that, Lord Kunzite."

The man shook his head and smirked. "You really must be behind on current events to think she doesn't already know that. But, it doesn't matter anymore, not for you at least."

"That's what you think."

Saeko was not at all prepared for the appearance of the strange woman in her garage. Nor was she expecting to be blinded, thrown against a wall, or held by the throat by hands larger and stronger than any belonging to a mere human. Yet, all three happened within the span of a second. To say she was terrified was an exercise in understatement.

"Now, how about you drop your sword?" The metallic, silver-colored creature, only vaguely reminiscent of a human by then, tightened its grip of the doctor's neck in its right hand. Its left arm had morphed into a blade that it held against its victim's stomach. "I might just consider sparing poor Saeko's life if you do."

Despite the obvious danger, Kunzite's wicked grin only widened. "Certainly, but I can clearly see that you are unfamiliar with one of my favorite adages."

As a trained warrior, he could immediately tell that the youma had made several critical tactical errors. However, the worst of the lot was that it had severely underestimated its opponent's skills. Sure, he was an expert with a sword, but his battle with Usagi had demonstrated that he could fight just as well without one. He lifted the blade to shoulder length and pointed it away from Saeko and the youma. Then he let it go, just as the monster had commanded. Physics would have dictated that the sword would have struck the concrete floor in just over half of a second. It never made it that far. The resounding shriek of agony that echoed about the small room was proof.

"Saeko-san! What's wrong?" Usagi, already transformed as Sailor Moon by then, was the one who asked that question. She was joined by Sailor Mercury and Luna as the trio rushed into the garage just in time to see golden light flood the room.

Saeko looked to her left, where the youma had been, but saw absolutely nothing of the beast. Instead she saw her daughter and the young blonde standing just beyond the threshold, right at the location she swore she and the intruder had stood only moments ago.

"Mama! Are you okay?" Ami ran to her mother and held her around the waist with one arm while doing her best to check for any injuries with her other hand.

"I- I'm fine, I think." Her heavy breathing, on the verge of outright hyperventilation, belied her words, as did the fact that her entire body continued to tremble. "Though, on second thought, I might need to rest for a little while."

The distinct noise made by metal scraping against metal drew the group's attention to Kunzite. "There was a youma hiding in the garage, but I took care of it already."

"Really?" Surprise covered Usagi's face as soon as she noticed the pile of sand-colored dust near Saeko's feet. "How could you beat it so quickly?"

A sigh of frustration escaped his lips as he pointed at the pile of luggage that sat next to the door. "I'll tell you all about it after we get everything loaded into the trunk."

Haruka and Michiru returned to the house a few minutes later, bringing with them accounts of youma battles that were as effortless as Kunzite's. By then, enough time had elapsed for Saeko to regain her bearings. In fact, she behaved as though her life never was at risk of meeting a premature end, which by itself was a remarkable transformation.

"I think it may be better for Haruka and me to travel alone in our car, while the rest of you ride with Mizuno-sensei," Michiru offered. "We'll leave a few minutes before the rest of you."

"Well, if you do leave before us, we need some way to contact each other," Saeko said.

Michiru nodded and pulled her cell phone from her purse while Saeko did the same. "It's usually easier to call me since Haruka rarely answers the phone while driving, which is annoying but also a good thing at times." She passed a wry grin to the sandy-haired blonde, one that was answered by a nonchalant shrug.

The pair then exchanged phone numbers and saved them under aliases, an idea Usagi casually noted—with Kunzite's emphatic agreement—worked well for her in saving her family's life. In that way, if one or both phones were captured, the deception would help to prevent immediate detection of the relationship between Saeko and the outer senshi.

Saeko stood from her seat and started toward the back door. "Now that we have that done, we should hurry up and get out of here."

Haruka and Michiru placed the pair of rolling suitcases that belonged to Usagi and Ami into the trunk of their navy blue Lexus IS F. The latter had posited the logic that, if anything happened to the other group's car and yet they managed to survive and arrive at the subway, they would at least have clothing to wear in Kyoto. The remaining luggage was already stowed in Saeko's larger sedan, in which the other four humans and Luna would travel. Haruka's car pulled out of the driveway and into the street, headed toward Azabu-Juuban Station. It moved slower than she would have preferred as her partner instructed her to take a more deliberate pace. The car also turned in the direction opposite from that which would take them to the subway station. It was a diversionary move in case any more youmas decided to follow them.

"I think now is a good time for us to leave," Saeko said as she pushed the button on the car's instrument panel that resulted in a subsequent opening of the garage door.

The silver sedan backed out of the driveway and into the street. The driver turned one last wistful glance toward the stately house before directing the car down the street in the direction of the station. It was bittersweet as she knew it would have been the last time she would see the house for the foreseeable future. However, there were far more important things in her life than mere buildings. One of them sat beside her in the front passenger seat while the other slouched in the passenger-side rear seat. She didn't mind losing all of her worldly possessions and even more, so long as she could ensure the safety of her two most important people.

* * *

Author's Note: If you enjoy this story, absolutely hate it, or even just consider it nothing more than average, please take the time to review and tell me what you think. Especially tell me if I made any mistakes or if there is anything that could use improvement. That way, I can correct the mistakes and ensure that the later chapters are even better than the last.

_Originally published January 1, 2013._

_Modified chapter published June 6, 2013._


	2. New Plans

**2 | New Plans**

Beryl sighed in frustration as she slumped into her heavily cushioned chair and reflected on the previous evening's events. She was so close to achieving her dream of being with Endymion and ruling the Earth alongside the love of her life. Furthermore, her method of attaining that goal would have prevented the entirety of the strife that had marred the planet, her personal life, and the lives of several others. Sure, the absence of Serenity in the time stream might have created unforeseen problems later in their future, but nothing that she didn't think she or the senshi could have solved. However, none of that came to pass. Instead, the princess became even more powerful than ever before. And her name, Serenity the Sixth, implied she was not the reincarnation of the princess she so desperately loathed but an altogether new entity. How that could be was a question she decided to save for a later time, as the present required her to try to make some sense of the chaos that had erupted in her kingdom.

Upon her desk was a draft of new standing orders she would give to her personal guards. That particular directive would allow her guards to heed her verbal commands so that she would not suffer a repeat of the previous indignity. Certainly the reasoning behind her previous order was to prevent her from doing anything rash, and maybe attacking Sailor Moon when it was clear her energy blast had absolutely no effect on the senshi would be considered both rash and unwise. However, she was incensed at being forced to withdraw from the battle at a time where her presence may have altered the outcome. If she was there she could have changed things. Even if her attacks were worthless against the princess and that shield she automatically produced, they would have been utterly devastating against the other, far weaker senshi. Maybe by forcing the princess to expend time and energy to protect her fellow warriors she could have prevented the losses of both Kunzite and Zoisite.

She remained in the throne room long enough to see the princess's attack slam into Kunzite and remove the general from her influence. In that regard he was as good as dead to her. Zoisite, on the other hand, actually was physically dead. The manner of his death was a mystery to her despite Sazaratha's insistence that it was a combined attack from the senshi that had led to the youngest Shittenou member's demise. She was skeptical of her remaining general's account of the events that took place after her departure, and much of that arose from her inherent distrust of the being she feared was more loyal to Metalia than to her. However, there wasn't much more she could do as Sazaratha was one of the few within her kingdom who were powerful enough to combat the senshi.

"_What should I do about Sazaratha?"_ Beryl pondered as she stared off into the distance. _"She helped us to find the princess, but I'm not sure she did it for me. I'm not certain she's doing anything for me instead of for her own reasons, and what those reasons are I have no idea."_

A sharp buzzing sound that resonated about the room interrupted her meditation. She shifted to her gaze to a small monitor on her desk that displayed a flashing red square enclosing the unshaven face of an older man. That face belonged to the commander of her personal guard, the only beings within her Dark Kingdom that she could fully trust at that moment. They were fiercely loyal to her even before her descent toward evil that was promoted by Metalia. The only problem was that they lacked sufficient magical skills to use telepathy, thus resigning them to the use of common technology such as the two-way video communication system that was begging for her attention. She trudged from her chair and to the desk where she could stop the annoying sound and speak with the man on the other side of the screen.

"What is it, Commander Marakof?"

"We found what was causing the disruptions at the north end of the complex." His tone carried a sense of urgency that was unusual for him. "It appears that the control room was demolished, thus allowing too much energy to flow to the development chambers."

"_I can only imagine that the senshi were behind that,"_ she thought, pursing her lips into a slight frown at the news. _"They must have figured out the purpose of the room. I only hope they don't learn the full extent of my plan, but with Kunzite on their side now it's only a matter of time before he reveals everything."_

"What do you want me to do now, your highness?"

"Just return to your command post, and bring the others with you." Her apparent calm in the face of the news was in stark contrast to his apprehension. "There's nothing we can do about that right now. Instead we should focus on finding the princess and tracking her if at all possible. Get me an update on the status of the search."

"Aye, your highness. I will do that as soon as I can." He bowed before terminating the connection.

A pensive sigh escaped Beryl's lips as she returned to her chair and collapsed into its cushions. She had ordered the dispatch of ten youmas, specifically those creatures that could most accurately mimic humans, to scour the city for any trace of the princess. It was a risky maneuver on many levels, not the least of which concentrated on the fact that none of the youmas were able to sense the intrinsic energy of the princess but instead had to rely on visual cues. The probability of the girl traveling in such a conspicuous manner was exceedingly small. She remembered one of the last communications from Kunzite before his purification when he conveyed to her the argument he had with Sazaratha regarding the princess's identity. Apparently she had run into the girl but failed to identify her because the princess did not wear her typical hairstyle. That was when she did not have the benefit of being Sailor Moon, a situation unlikely to be repeated. No, this time the princess would be well hidden and well protected, especially given the arrival of new and completely unknown senshi.

"_Why am I doing all this when I know the princess most likely isn't anywhere in Tokyo? I just risk wasting time and making my efforts to locate the princess rather conspicuous when there are far larger concerns I should address—namely, what to do about Sazaratha. Should I allow her to command the youmas in gathering energy when I don't fully trust her and her loyalty clearly is elsewhere? The problem is I don't have anyone else to lead them, as Kunzite's gone, Nephrite and Zoisite are dead, and Jadeite is in eternal…"_

At that moment she shot up from her chair as a sudden feeling of realization claimed her. That sensation led to the wry smile that spread across her lips as she knew what she could do to solve at least one of her problems.

"_Of course… Jadeite is in eternal sleep, which means he's not dead. I can revive him and have him work for me again. That way I know I have someone who is loyal, if nothing else, commanding part of my future army of youmas and I don't have to risk everything on Sazaratha."_

Just as soon as the sense of euphoria arrived it departed with the recognition of two important facts. The first was that Jadeite was sentenced to eternal sleep due to his constant failures. However, that was the least of her concerns. Now that she had seen the senshi in person and witnessed with her own eyes how skillfully they worked, especially in the case of Sailor Moon, his propensity to grab defeat from the proverbial jaws of victory could be understood. Besides, the few months he spent in eternal sleep should have been sufficient motivation for him to want to succeed in his mission. It was the second fact that worried her far greater than the first: that Sazaratha indubitably would become extremely suspicious upon discovering that Jadeite was rescued from his prison and was working for Beryl again. If the demon indeed was untrustworthy, then it was very likely she would sabotage Jadeite's mission, or worse, try to kill the general.

"_I think that's what I'm going to do."_ She lowered herself back into her chair. _"However, I'm going to keep a very close eye on Sazaratha's behavior around Jadeite. If it looks like she's trying to do anything to interfere with his mission, then I'll have no choice but to dispose of her."_

With that problem seemingly out of the way, she allowed her mind to wander to other issues, namely what her overall strategy would be to gain enough energy to revive Metalia. At that juncture she did not have enough youmas to spare for the task of gathering energy from humans. Fifty youmas were available to her, a sufficient number at first glance but for the crucial fact that only five of them were suited for siphoning energy. The remaining youmas were specialists at reconnaissance, such as creatures she had sent out to scour the city for any sign of the princess, or were better skilled at combat. Sending any of the five youmas out to retrieve energy would have resulted in their slaughter at the hands of the senshi. It didn't matter if all five were dispatched simultaneously, given Sailor Moon's amazing strength and the fighting skills of the three new senshi. She might have had better success if she tried such a strategy earlier in their campaign, when the senshi were a much weaker fighting force. However, she was convinced those girls were not a threat to her and had faith in Jadeite's capabilities to harness the energy in a rapid manner. Her experiences over the past several months eviscerated her previous hubris and grounded her. She would not take the senshi for granted ever again. Nay, her new strategy would account for them at all stages of its planning.

As comfortable as the chair felt and as much as she resisted wanting to leave it, she knew any realistic plan for combating the senshi and gaining critical energy would have to be constructed in the planning room. That was where all of the information the Dark Kingdom possessed about the girls was located and where she could easily work with the commanders of her personal guard if she deemed it necessary. And, given the immense complexity of the plan, it likely would be essential that the input of her trusted advisors would be requested. So she stood from the chair and walked into the middle of her room where, a second later, she disappeared in a brilliant flash of red light.

—|1|**2**|3|4|5|—

A frustrated groan escaped Minako's lips as she pushed the covers off her body and rolled out of her warm bed. Her eyes caught the narrow, bright gold rods that conspicuously stood out against the pale white background of her alarm clock. Their positions and angle relative to one another signified within her mind that it was late in the morning. Another second of staring gave her brain sufficient time to disambiguate the seemingly random arrangement of the clock hands and assemble the information into a pair of numbers: nine and forty-five. Nine forty-five in the morning, a time that was confirmed by the brilliant sunshine that reflected off the glass of her next-door neighbor's window and poured into her bedroom through the large casement, forcing the blonde to avert her eyes. If there was any good news for her, it was Sunday, meaning she did not have to go to school that day. However, none of those mundane details mattered to her at that time.

"I so wish I could see Usagi right now, just so I can tell her how sorry I am for everything I've done," she whispered. Gazing at the reflection in her dresser mirror, her countenance revealed a pitiful expression of dejection that expressed itself most readily through her almost lifeless eyes. "I don't know when I'll be able to see her again. I just hope I didn't drive her away through my stupidity."

After a long time she pulled herself away from the mirror and unceremoniously dropped her body into a seated position on the edge of her bed. The resulting loud thud broke through the silence that had dominated her room up to that point. Her eyes found and locked onto a blank space on her wall as she fell into an even deeper contemplative mood.

"What am I going to do to fix this mess I created?" She heaved a tired sigh. "I would go out after her, but I have no idea where she went. Not that I can blame her for not trusting me enough to tell me. I wouldn't tell anyone who tried to kill me where I was going either."

She fell backward onto her bed and stared blankly at the ceiling for several more minutes as silence once again filled the room. The worst part about the day was that she had nothing that she absolutely had to do. For normal schoolgirls of her age, it would have been an absolute joy to have the day free from schoolwork or chores. For her, she wished for anything at all to take her mind away from the intense melancholy that was her thoughts. Even worse was the fact that the only thing she wanted to do was to find her fellow blonde as quickly as possible and do everything within her power to beg for forgiveness. Clearly, that was not an option available to her.

Her gaze fell to where the snow-white cat normally would lie. "Artemis, what do you…" A sharp gasp soon pierced the room just prior to the reverberating crash that indicated her abrupt dismounting of her bed. "Artemis!"

She ducked to her knees and lifted the trailing sheets to peer beneath her bed, hoping against all logic that the feline would be hiding there. Indubitably, he was not. She then began to search her remainder of her room, starting with the closet. Why her advisor would hide from her in her closet she did not know or even care to question. In any case, it was a short-lived exploration as her mother barged into her room only a few seconds later.

"Aino Minako! Why are you making so much damned noise so early in the morning?" a visibly frustrated Akiko asked with a displeased tone.

Minako's anxiety made her oblivious to her mother's irritation. "Artemis! He's missing!"

"Serves you right. It's just like you to lose track of something so important."

That comment caused Minako to freeze in place as a wave of intense anger swept over her. "I didn't lose him."

"Well, he obviously isn't here. If you didn't lose him then he must have run off. Either way it just shows how irresponsible you are."

She bolted up from the floor to her feet. "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean, you have no sense of responsibility." Akiko pointed a finger at the girl, ignoring her daughter's fierce stare. "You have horrible grades because you spend so little time studying. There's no way you're going to have a decent career if you keep that up. You'll end up working some soul-deadening job just like your father, and _that's_ if you're lucky." She paused momentarily in her invective to intensify her glower at the fuming blonde. "Furthermore, you're always sneaking out of the house to go do God-knows-what. Don't think we haven't noticed that. I hope you're not running off to see some lame boy, because I swear if you are you'll be grounded 'til you're thirty!"

Minako desperately wanted to say something that she knew she would later regret, but smartly decided to remain silent while maintaining her brooding glare at the woman.

"Anyway, are you going to come down for breakfast or should I just make enough for your father and me?"

"It doesn't matter," Minako said in a brusque whisper, overruling the complaints of her stomach.

"Suit yourself." Akiko turned and walked out of Minako's bedroom. Before she turned to walk down the hall she abruptly stopped and turned her head over her shoulder. "If you'd just take my advice for what it is, things would be so much easier," she said with a tone bordering on pity.

"Whatever," Minako spat as she stomped to the door and slammed it shut, practically right in her mother's face. She then trudged to her bed and fell face down across it. Her body trembled in anger while tears of frustration and sadness flowed from her eyes and down her reddened cheeks.

"_Why does she always treat me like that,"_ she silently pondered. _"Does she have no idea how much it hurts me when she says all those things? It's not like I can help having to leave at night to fight so that she can turn around and act like I'm a baby and a complete idiot. On top of all that, she didn't even bother trying to offer her help in finding Artemis, as if she expects me to fail at that the same way she practically expects me to fail at everything now."_

She grabbed the pillow next to her and pulled it into her chest, hugging it so tightly that, if it possessed any life, it long ago would have been extinguished by her grasp. That was her state for several minutes as she let the frustration and resentment slowly die down so that she could somehow function well enough to perform her primary mission of the morning. That is, her mission beyond locating and supplicating Usagi to forgive her and accept her friendship once again. Once she no longer sensed the intense rage and depression that had immobilized her, she trudged from the bed and to her closet for some clothes prior to going out. She didn't much care to look for anything fancy to wear, as she wasn't doing much more than combing the streets for the cat she unceremoniously discarded the previous morning. How Artemis ended up in his predicament was a fact that did not escape her mind.

"_As much as I hate to think that, maybe she was somewhat right. It was my fault that Artemis is out there after all. I was the one who threw him out while I was blinded by my rage at Usagi."_

She frowned as she reminisced about her abandonment of and the eventual assault upon her princess. In particular, she remembered the hateful words she spouted at the shocked cat as she evicted Artemis from the shrine and from the senshi. Her sullen expression was broken by the awkward and ironic chuckle that escaped her lips.

"He was right," she whispered. "I did end up making a huge mistake after all. And we all ended up suffering because of it."

She grabbed the large red bow that had become a staple of her fashion for many years and tied it into her long blond hair. It was customary for her to affix a bow to her hair, as she always felt naked in the absence of one, and although she didn't always wear red, the number of times she wore a different color over the past year could be counted on one hand. Whether the red bow really matched her other clothing was irrelevant to her so long as she had it and could feel it tugging ever so slightly on her hair.

"_Okay, Artemis, I'm going to find you, and I'm going to make up to you all the pain I put you through. I promise."_

She grasped her purse and ran out of her room. She didn't bother telling her parents that she was going away, instead letting the heavy slam of the front door do the talking for her.

—|1|2|**3**|4|5|—

"_I wonder what they think happened in there. There's no sensible explanation I can create to explain away that kind of damage."_

Those were Rei's thoughts as she walked toward the destroyed living room. It was an understatement to say the least. Beyond telling them the truth of her secret identity and of her capture by Kunzite and that strange woman, nothing she could say would surpass any reasonable skepticism. Even for people accustomed to sensing and manipulating enhanced spiritual energy, the idea they would believe she was one of the mythical senshi and wielded magical attacks seemed farfetched in her mind. Ironically, the Dark Kingdom—the beings from who she wanted to conceal her identity more than anyone else—already knew she was the senshi of fire. So, she felt that, if she were under sufficient pressure to provide an explanation, she would reveal the secret she held for so long.

She strolled into the living room and immediately froze when her eyes witnessed the enormity of the scene. For the first time she could see just how horribly the fight had damaged the place and the extent of hard work that was required to make the room livable again. Yuuichirou was busy pushing the shattered remnants of the large central table against one wall. It was a rather heavy and sturdy piece of furniture by all accounts, and woefully expensive at that. Yet it was utterly destroyed by the energy blasts from Kunzite and his terrifying female partner. The same could be said about the other furniture that was haphazardly strewn about the room. None of the chairs had all of their legs attached, and one had its back completely sheared off as though it was deliberately and expertly removed with a saw. Almost everything was scorched, the blatant sign of fire damage, although there was no smoke damage or water damage from any attempt to extinguish flames. She spotted her grandfather sweeping the pale white debris from the cratered wall into a sizable pile in a different corner of the room. That damage clearly was created when Minako and she were blasted into the wall at the very beginning of the woefully one-sided battle.

Yuuichirou's eyes widened when he noticed the shrine maiden enter the room. "Ah, Rei-san! You're up!"

"It's this bad, isn't it?" Her dismal tone barely revealed the true depth of her sorrow.

He slowly walked toward her. "It's much better now than it was when we first saw the room this morning."

"It almost looks like you girls had a party that went way out of control," her grandfather said as humorously as he could manage, although his scowl told a different tale.

Her face, if not her entire body, screamed utter remorse when she turned toward the older man. "I'm sorry. This damage is all my fault and you guys shouldn't have to clean up behind me."

"There's no way you could fix all of this yourself," Yuuichirou said gently. "Besides, I'm more than willing to help you."

Her cheeks faintly reddened and progressively darkened to a deep crimson as she gazed at the priest-in-training. A similar blush was present on his face from the moment he saw her enter the room. They stood in silence and just stared at one another for a few moments before they were brought to reality by the hard rap of a broom handle against the floor.

"Anyway… so what actually happened in here?" His tone, though gruff, reflected curiosity more than irritation despite the expensive devastation.

The color faded from Rei's visage upon hearing the question. She hesitated in answering for a few moments, turning her sullen eyes away from her grandfather and at the wall beside her. When she finally did speak, it was in a voice no louder than a whisper.

"I… I strongly doubt you'd believe me if I told you."

He heaved a frustrated sigh and slowly walked up to his granddaughter. "I'm not angry at you," he said softly. "I just want to know what's going on."

"I know. I…"

Her violet eyes slowly shifted from the elder man to Yuuichirou and back as she pondered what she should say. She was reluctant to give the confession she truly wanted to reveal, but it did not take her long to realize there was no point in holding the secret much longer. She held a deep breath for a second to calm her intense anxiety before slowly exhaling and looking at her the two men with eyes that revealed a new sense of determination.

"What I'm about to say may sound crazy, but I swear every word of it is true." Her hand slowly slipped into her pocket where the transformation pen was stored.

"Go on," her grandfather urged with a sharp nod of his head. Yuuichirou prompted her to continue by giving a similar nod.

"The reason the room is a mess is because there was a large fight in here." Her resolve slowly grew, even if the volume of her voice did not. "A battle, actually… one that involved the senshi."

"The Sailor Senshi?" Yuuichirou's initial emotions of awe and disbelief soon shifted to concern as he remembered, vaguely, the last time there was a strange occurrence at the shrine. "Are you okay? What happened? Did anything try to hurt you? Because, if so, they're as good as dead if I ever see them."

Hearing his enthusiastic expression of concern caused the ferocious blush to return to Rei's cheeks. "For the most part I'm fine, Yuuichirou-san. I wouldn't recommend hunting them down as you probably wouldn't be able to find them. Revenge is also out of the question. As thoughtful and brave as you are, I don't think you'll have any better luck fighting them as I had."

"Wait, you tried to fight against those monsters?" her grandfather asked in dismay. "Why would you do that if the senshi were around?"

Rei took one last glance at her esteemed grandfather before she pulled the transformation pen from her pocket and held it over her head.

"Mars power, make up!"

A brilliant red light emanated from her body and enveloped her figure, forcing the pair to shield their eyes from its blinding intensity. Seconds later, the radiance diminished to the point where they could peek over their arms and witness the result of the magnificent transformation. Silence enveloped both men for the several moments they stared with gaping eyes at the figure that formerly was to one a precious young granddaughter and to the other the singular love of his life. Rei Hino no longer was there, as far as they could sense. In her place was the remarkable senshi of flame and passion, Sailor Mars. Yet, she was about to remind them that, despite her alternate identity as one of the enigmatic senshi, she very much was the girl they held so highly in their hearts. The only difference between their previous perception and her reality was the massive weight of the secrets she so painfully harbored.

"I'm sorry that I didn't let you know about this earlier, grandpa," she said morosely while hanging her head.

The aged man wrapped his arms around Rei and pulled her into a tender hug. "I'm glad that you finally decided to remove the tremendous burden from your soul of keeping such a large secret. I knew there was something special about you ever since your father dropped you off here. I consulted the great fire many times wondering about what made you so extraordinary, but I wasn't sure what the answer I continuously received meant."

"W-what did you see in the fire?"

"I was a symbol that I later discovered to be the sign of the planet Mars. The whole thing was a mystery to me before today. I didn't even contemplate the possibility that the fire was telling me you were Sailor Mars." He began to chuckle. "However, now that I look at you, it makes perfect sense. I'm surprised I couldn't figure it out sooner. There's no way that utterly beautiful senshi-in-red could have been anyone other than my lovely granddaughter."

Rei briefly smiled and began to giggle, but her moment of levity ended woefully too soon when she reflected on her life as a senshi.

"There's so much I need to tell both of you," she whispered. The tears she desperately tried to hide from their sympathetic gazes fell unabatedly. "So much about what I had gone through as a senshi. So much about the horrible mistakes I've made. I just don't know if I'm strong enough to do so right now."

There was no doubting his soothing tone when he wrapped his arms around his granddaughter yet again. "I won't force you to say anything more until you're ready."

She carefully pushed herself away from the hold of one man she deeply loved so that she could approach the other man who held similar consideration within her heart. For so long she was too afraid to express her true feelings. In one part of her mind it was the fear that he would reject her that prevented her from acting. Another part warned her of the possibility of incredible heartache if her identity as Sailor Mars inadvertently led to their separation or, worse, his death at the hands of a vengeful enemy. However, there was no more practical reason to delay what she knew she had to do, and no worse sadness than that which she currently was experiencing.

"There's more that I want to tell you to, Yuuichirou-san," she said as she fell into his chest. He placed one arm around her waist and the other over her shoulders, ostensibly to steady her. However, he was pulled into a tight embrace when Rei wrapped her arms around his back. She contemplated saying the three words she knew she wanted to vocalize, but she opted to let her actions and expressions speak for her. Somehow it appeared that the often dense Yuuichirou immediately understood precisely what she meant but failed to say as he pulled her into a tighter yet unmistakably gentle and affectionate hug.

"I know," he whispered with a brief pause elapsing before he added, "And I'll be here when you're ready to tell me."

Rei nodded as she slowly released her hold of the tall man. She had every intention of fulfilling the unspoken promise made that morning to confess to him, and sooner rather than later. The only thing that prevented her—besides her nosy grandfather's presence—was the overwhelming sensation that it was only proper for her to first inform a certain pigtailed blonde about her sincere feelings of sorrow, regret, loyalty, and, yes, love.

—|1|2|3|**4**|5|—

Maeda Yuko skipped purposefully down the street, her mid back-length strawberry red hair bouncing with every step. The sixteen year old girl's wide crystalline blue eyes and large smile broadcasted a sense of serenity and joviality. Being in such happy mood, she gave a friendly wave and warm greeting to practically every random neighbors she encountered. For her, such gregariousness was business as usual. On the other hand, the cat with gorgeous white fur she gently cradled within her arms as she proceeded along her path was completely new. She had a fondness for all animals, but she strongly preferred dogs to cats, and everyone familiar with her knew it. So, she attracted some inquisitive glances by holding the cat, but nobody really gave the thought any more attention.

About a minute later she arrived at the front entrance of her destination. A few loud knocks on the rather lightweight door alerted the home's occupants of an unexpected visitor, and the door slowly opened to reveal a middle-aged woman with dark-blue hair tied into a low ponytail. She smiled, which made the woman smile almost autonomously in response.

"Hello, Aino-san. How are you doing this wonderful afternoon? Is Minako-san home?" Yuko asked.

"I'm doing quite well, Maeda-san," Akiko replied. Her smile widened before suddenly faltering. "Minako's out right now. She's been gone all day since this morning, actually. I have no idea where she went, but I assume she's looking for her cat."

"Would this be the cat she's looking for?" Yuko carefully lifted the sleeping white cat out from her chest.

Akiko mumbled something inaudible while she looked over the still body of the feline. She loosed a tiny gasp once she recognized the strange crescent moon shape on the animal's forehead.

"Yes, that's definitely her cat. Where did you find it? And how did you know it was missing in the first place?"

"I passed by her earlier this morning when I was going out shopping." Yuko grinned while lightly patting the cat's head. "I asked her what she was doing, as she looked all out of sorts crawling behind some bushes. It actually looked kinda funny now that I think about it, but please don't tell her that I said that, okay?" She gave a sly wink that elicited a humorous chuckle from Akiko. "Anyway, she told me she was looking for her pet cat and she told me all about what it looked like. I told her that if I see him I'll certainly try to bring him back to her, and I did see him just wondering around the outside of the market as I was leaving. He looked a bit hungry so I brought him home with me and gave him something to eat and some water. Once I saw he was doing better I came here to give the cat back to Minako." She then stroked Artemis's head and back before gently dropping the cat into Akiko's waiting arms.

"Thank you very much, and I'm very glad you found him. Whenever she gets back I'll let Minako know that you found him." She paused momentarily while petting the white cat. "Well, now that you're here, would you mind staying for a little tea or something?"

Yuko pouted. "I wish I could, Aino-san, but I have to hurry back home."

"That's too bad. Anyway, if you see her on your way back, could you please let her know that and tell her to come home?"

"Absolutely, Aino-san!" Yuko turned to leave, energetically waving as she walked. "I hope you have a nice evening!"

"The same for you!"

Yuko walked away from the house and proceeded a few blocks down the street until finding an alley between two buildings. With a quick check to ensure nobody was paying attention to her, she ducked into the alley. A wry smile graced her lips as her body began to emit a pale golden light. In an instant the girl disappeared, replaced by nothing more than a faint wisp of black smoke.

—|1|2|3|4|**5**|—

Beryl's eyes narrowed as she scanned a large political map of the country of Japan that was displayed on one of the monitors that lined the wall of the planning room. A second screen showed a detailed satellite map of Minato ward. Several red arrows gave the locations where youmas previously were sent into action, either to gather energy or to attack the senshi. With very few exceptions the arrows were clustered within Juuban district. At the time, it made perfect sense to attack within a very confined area, as their pre-conflict analysis showed that the region contained the most energy. However, there was a fatal flaw in their methodology, as their scans could only cover large areas and could not disambiguate different types of energy. What she currently knew and appreciated, and what she wished she knew before commencing her initial plans, was that the reason their scans detected extremely high amounts of energy in Juuban was because that was the home of the Sailor Senshi. Otherwise, the location was no more interesting than any other city on Earth. If she was going to have any success at gathering energy, it would have to be in a different location. Better, it would have to be in several different locations. However, two important details had to be addressed by her new plan. The first was where to deploy her youmas. The second was how to actually get them there.

"_I wish it was as simple as ordering a youma to a location and then having it teleport there. However, only a few of the youmas have that capability,"_ Beryl lamented as she tried to reason through her transportation problem. Indeed, in the Dark Kingdom's previous attacks the youmas were brought alongside the Shitennou. _"It will be easier with Jadeite's return, but he would have to get a feel for the countryside first as he can't just teleport anywhere. That would limit any attacks to only a small radius outside of Tokyo."_

She pressed a button on the keypad that caused the map of Minato to zoom out so that it displayed the eastern twenty-three wards of Tokyo Prefecture. A second button press caused a series of concentric circles to appear with the center immediately over Juuban. According to the map's scale, the innermost ring had a diameter of four kilometers and each successive circle was two kilometers larger in radius than the last. She intently stared at the map for a few seconds before sighing in frustration.

"_I guess it will take Jadeite or the teleportation-capable youmas some time to become familiar with the few wards that surround Minato, let alone this entire prefecture. I can imagine that it would take one or two weeks of intense study for them to learn their layouts well enough to find appropriate places to teleport. That means it will take a few months to learn all of the wards, and I'm not sure I have that much time."_

She leaned back into her chair and closed her eyes. It was quite difficult to come up with an interim plan that would allow her to achieve some progress toward reviving Metalia while awaiting complete development of her remaining youmas. A small grin pulled at her lips when she came across one epiphany.

"_Maybe if we just concentrate on specific areas in those wards it would greatly reduce the amount of time early on, and then if they need to expand from there they can do so on the fly. We could use those areas as bases for transport to and from the Dark Kingdom. This way, I think it would take a week, maybe less, to become sufficiently familiar with these areas."_

Once that issue was resolved in her mind, she then switched her focus to finding the regions she would initially position her five energy-gathering youmas. She recognized that was the most critical part of her plan, and she intended to make sure that whatever she created would have some reasonable chance of success against the senshi. Given the uncanny propensity for those girls to arrive and disrupt any attempt at obtaining human life force at the most inopportune times, her first course of action was to devise some mode of defense against the senshi. That meant a thorough review of the youmas she had available.

"_I need some way to keep those five youmas safe. I could try sending a few combat-oriented youmas to accompany each of them, but that leads to the question of how to hide their presence. Those youmas by far are the strongest of the lot but are incapable of disguising themselves as humans. The last thing I want to do is make a spectacle of things and draw even more attention to my plans."_

She took a deep breath and slowly exhaled it as that last sentence caused her to stop and think harder about potential strategies. One of her goals was to work as clandestinely as possible. Having the larger, more powerful, but immediately identifiable youmas work in the open was the antithesis to that goal.

"_Maybe… maybe instead of having those youmas immediately available, I could have them on stand-by and have the reconnaissance youmas accompany them. If anything goes wrong, then they could alert me, or more likely Jadeite, and he could send the other youmas in to assist in the fight. Better yet, I could create a distraction using some of the non-energy-gathering youmas that would draw the senshi away from where their main focus should be pointed."_

She turned her eyes back to the map of Tokyo Prefecture displayed on the monitor. Minato had been the focus of the fight since its inception, but it was obvious she needed to shift the battlefield away from that ward. The two wards that caught her eye were Adachi and Katsushika. They were relatively distant from Minato, which meant they were not heavily visited by the senshi. That distance also meant that it would take the girls much more time to travel to the scene of any youma attack. The idea that they might not learn of the attacks if her youmas were careful briefly entered her mind but was quashed by the knowledge and realization that those annoying warriors always appeared. The only thing she could do was to mitigate the amount of damage they could do to her forces.

"_Kunzite saw that it only takes them a few minutes to travel across the entirety of Juuban, so it should take them at least thirty minutes to respond to any alert of a youma's presence in those wards. Given that the senshi will be under constant surveillance, that should give Jadeite and me advance warning of their arrival. Then we could remove our most important assets and either set up an ambush for the senshi or just completely disappear."_

Her sharp nod expressed her satisfaction with that initial plan. Her grander goal was to use the newly acquired youmas to attack over the whole of Japan, or maybe even beyond the borders of that island nation, to gather energy as quickly as possible for Metalia. Once that ancient being was revived she could use its power to build what she considered her real kingdom. However, that was in the distant future. What she needed to do in the present was release the first of the Shitennou from his prison so that he could be available to her once again. She quickly stood from her chair and prepared to teleport to the throne room to do exactly that, feeling the first genuine sense of enthusiasm since the princess's capture and near-elimination.

_Originally published January 30, 2013._

_Modified chapter published June 6, 2013._


	3. An Old Fellow and a Radically New Path

**3 | An Old Fellow and a Radically New Path**

Beryl slowly walked through the heavily damaged throne room toward the obsidian, crystal-swathed throne. She was forced to withdraw from the chamber during the battle by her zealous guards and failed to witness the full extent of the destruction that occurred there. Everywhere she turned her red eyes she could see extensive cracks snake their ways through the wall, floor, and ceiling. A depression in the floor marked the position the princess stood when the Silver Crystal made its first appearance since the hated regal was revealed to her and anyone willing to pay attention to be the alter-ego of Sailor Moon. Another crater in the wall of the elevated platform indicated an unfortunate person's forceful collision with that solid surface. Fortunately, the chair itself was unharmed, thus allowing her to sit while she performed the spell that would free Jadeite from the tortuous prison of Eternal Sleep. There was no doubt that another explosion of similar ferocity to the one that extruded the crystal from the princess's body would have spelled the end of that room. Once she had performed her task she planned to order the start of a massive rebuilding effort.

The throne itself was nowhere close to as comfortable as the chair that resided within her personal chambers, but it was perfectly located to maximize her usage of the fundamental Dark Energy that emanated from the ethereal being in the adjacent room. That knowledge always helped to assuage the pain that typically resulted from long stays in the throne. Furthermore, if everything worked for her as planned, she wouldn't have to sit in that hard and unforgiving seat for longer than a few minutes. Firm in that mindset she plopped into the stone chair and held outward the dark violet sphere that sat atop the gnarled finger-like extensions of the wood staff. Her eyes automatically closed shut as she concentrated the sum of her mental focus on locating the dimension within which she banished the crystal-encased Jadeite. A low rumble that shook the chamber and displaced more of the façade from the wall denoted the successful discovery of the frozen general.

"_Fortunately that did not take very long."_ The vibrations she felt through her seat prompted her smirk. _"All I have to do now is the far trickier part of reversing the spell."_

And trickier it was, indeed. If she failed in the slightest bit to reverse the initial effects of sentencing Jadeite to eternal sleep, then her sole loyal general would be lost to her. The main pitfall was correctly restarting the vital functions of his organs, especially his brain, all of which indubitably were suspended as a consequence of his extended stasis. She had to ensure that all of them started simultaneously and worked properly, which meant administering a very precise amount of dark energy. Providing insufficient energy would kill him as a number of his organs would remain shut down, whereas dispensing too much energy when he was in such a vulnerable state would destroy his body. If there were a set guideline for reversing the effects of eternal sleep, particularly for the amount of energy required to achieve the goal, she would have been immensely grateful. However, the punishment was termed "eternal sleep" for the exact reason of its permanence, and she was the only person she could recall who attempted to undo eternity. Nevertheless, she had to act quickly upon releasing Jadeite's body from the crystal as any delay would only complicate her task.

A brilliant flash of white light revealed the general's immobile body and his countenance of outright horror. She imperceptibly flinched when she noticed the expression, feeling the slightest tinge of remorse at knowing that it represented the last thing he remembered: immense fear of her and her power. That reaction sharply contrasted with the unmitigated fury she felt when she condemned Jadeite to eternal sleep for his repeated failures. She knew that it was a rash decision to eliminate a loyal general in such a callous fashion, but her personality at the time contributed to such injudicious behavior. Time and experience had taught her to be more thoughtful.

Deep furrows formed across her brow as she studied the crystal more intently. A low-pitched hum escaped her lips, but it was too soft to extend beyond her own range of hearing. That was her state as she calculated to the best of her ability the amount of energy she needed to expend to break the crystal and, more importantly, the amount required to resuscitate the figure within. Once the translucent surface was punctured she would have mere seconds to begin the process before death took him.

"_For your sake, and for mine, I really hope this works."_ Her anxiety was palpable when she initiated the process, filling the room with a bright red light that emanated from the orb.

Deep fissures almost immediately began to appear within the crystal as the crimson waves of dark energy bombarded its exterior. A second later saw its reduction to mere shards, resulting in the sudden collapse to the floor of the formerly imprisoned Jadeite. She increased the amount of energy she poured into the staff to the point his body became swathed by a faint red halo of light. What that exactly meant she did not know, but given the gargantuan sums that she was feeding the general she assumed it was a sign of his slow revival. She poured ever more energy into the general's prone figure until the red aura shifted to dark violet and his body started to convulse uncontrollably. The meaning there was blatantly obvious, and it prompted her unconscious wince as well as her immediate and very deliberate reduction in the amount of energy she sent him. Despite her palpable stress and mounting physical and mental exhaustion she maintained that extremely high expenditure of energy for two full minutes. That was the amount of time required for the red light to shift to gold and for a small groan in a pitch much deeper than hers to find its way to her ears. She immediately stopped after that, fearing inadvertent harm to him in an attempt to further rejuvenate the man. Merely reviving him was her initial task, and at that she had been eminently successful.

He continued to lie on his back atop the hard, cold floor, but he was alive and in far better condition than he displayed only minutes before. His breaths were ragged and shallow as expected from not having used his lungs for so long. There were no symptoms of paralysis, although movement beyond tiny waggles of his fingers and his feet was impossible for several more hours. They were encouraging signs to the queen that carefully hovered over his body.

"Welcome back, Jadeite." Her words were delivered with uncharacteristic tenderness for a person sadistic enough to doom him to such a terrible fate in the first place. His initial expression of terror concurred with the sentiment.

"Y-your… ma-majesty…" he feebly whispered. It would take several more minutes for his voice to fully recover.

She shook her head. "Don't push yourself, Jadeite, as you're too weak right now. You need to rest and regain your energy before you do anything else. I'll take you to your personal quarters so you can do exactly that."

That statement utterly surprised the general, and in a way it also surprised the very woman who spoke those words. Under normal circumstances she would never make such an offer to a subordinate as she believed would damage her appearance as an assertive leader who commanded fear and respect. Furthermore, she was far too prideful to allow what essentially was a role reversal. However, she was forced to take the initiative in the absence of anyone else capable of quickly transporting the weakened man to his room. She bent to her knees and gently lowered a hand to his shoulder. A moment later the two had disappeared from the throne room in a bright flash of red and gold light.

—|1|**2**|3|—

Four hours had passed since Jadeite had been placed atop the atypically firm mattress that composed the surface of his bed by the one individual who he never would have anticipated performing such a task. It was at that precise time the rejuvenated man opened his eyes and welcomed the images of his poorly illuminated chamber for the first time in months. His mind still contained the memory of his personal room, of the darkened corridors, of his sacred queen, and of his hated adversaries. Considering everything that had elapsed during his forced absence those recollections were positively ancient, but they helped him navigate his way through the initial stages of his new existence.

He swung his legs off the side of the bed so that his bare feet touched the cold stone floor and energetically pushed himself off the mattress and into a standing position. The cold sensation running up his legs and to his brain didn't bother him. In a way, it satisfied him to know that he could feel something as mundane as sharp physical pain, as it was infinitely superior to the numbness that came with Eternal Sleep. He saw his boots sitting at the side of his bed but ignored them. There would be plenty of time to put them on later. For the moment, he merely enjoyed the feeling of… feeling. However, his attention suddenly was captured by something he saw that conflicted with the last image he remembered of his quarters. The granite table at the center of the room was familiar to him, but the yellow envelope sitting near the edge of the round surface was not. He cautiously approached the table and the object obliquely resting on its smooth surface, intently studying it and, perhaps, attempting to gauge its contents without touching it. After a few seconds he reasoned that it would not harm him to pick it up.

He broke the seal of the heavy manila and spread across the table the several documents and sets of photographs that were contained within. The pictures were of five young girls in total, of which three of the individuals immediately were familiar to him. His initial reaction was one of extreme irritation and rage, but that was quickly surpassed by shame and regret. Those three girls, the Sailor Senshi, were the bane of his existence and the root cause of his lengthy and excruciating punishment. That the photographs were taken of the girls in their civilian guises did not surprise him as he had learned their identities prior to what was to have been his final action with the Dark Kingdom. What piqued his attention was that there were two other girls, two more senshi that he never had the unfortunate luck to encounter. Indubitably that would change given his resurrection, and at some point in the future he knew he would meet them in person, but at that juncture the mere thought of more adversaries enraged him.

His attention shifted to the short stack of documents that were neatly bound together by a large clip. At the top of the stack was a letter penned by Commander Marakof explaining that the pile was a short summary of the comprehensive set of information the Dark Kingdom possessed regarding the senshi. The obvious intent of the package was for him to spend the requisite time to review the reports and become informed of the latest developments so that he could return to being a valuable member of the kingdom. Naturally, he was instructed—or rather, "advised"—that he should expend as much time as he sensed he needed to examine the information, yet be cautious of taking too much time.

He removed the clip and set the cover letter aside, unable to suppress the sardonic chuckles that accompanied the act. _"I guess this is better than nothing when it comes to saying welcome back."_

The next page immediately stunned and silenced him as it contained a brief description of all of the known senshi—all _eight_ of them. There were only five girls whose photographs in both senshi and civilian forms were present upon the table, but the document explicitly listed eight. The three missing senshi effectively were complete unknowns to them, as they were only identified by the term "Unknown Senshi" and a number. The authors of the report listed some basic knowledge about them, what little they could glean from the short and chaotic battle, such as the fact all three of them seemingly were older than the established senshi and likely were members of the group known as the Outer Senshi. Apparently, they were unable to match any single woman to a particular senshi identity, thus preventing him from learning what to call them should he ever see them during a mission. Otherwise, those few lines represented the sum of all data the Dark Kingdom held on those three.

Conversely, there were multitudes of pages dedicated to illustrating every known aspect of the lives of the guardian senshi. Some of the information was utterly superfluous, such as their favorite subjects in school, but the vast majority of it was essential to his mission and, beyond that, an astonishing revelation about their surveillance capabilities. He had no idea they had the ability to obtain so much intelligence about the normally secretive warriors. Granted, the big break that allowed their bonanza of information was a slip that occurred during a tense moment in the relationship between the senshi, an incident that was described in glorious detail in the report. However, the opening was exploited to its maximum extent upon its creation, and that fact made him quite proud.

He brought a small wooden chair closer to the table so that he could sit in relative comfort as he pored over the documents for about an hour, using a lamp on the table to provide essential light to make the reading somewhat less strenuous. During that time he learned that many interesting events and surprises had occurred while he was away. One fair bit of news was that Sailor Moon was Princess Serenity, which initially shocked him but upon deeper consideration he considered it painfully obvious, if not embarrassingly so. Intriguingly, she was not a reincarnation of a form from the past life, unlike her fellow senshi, but a completely separate and modern princess. Again, that was reasonable given the absence of Sailor Moon during the Silver Millennium. Another thing he discovered was that the rapport between the girls had significantly degraded over the course of a few months. That was due to the mistaken idea held by the senshi that their princess and Sailor Moon were separate individuals, and that Usagi Tsukino, the civilian identity of Sailor Moon, was not and could not have been their princess. Any sense of amity had disintegrated to the point of Usagi's guardians breaking their friendships with her and, at one point, attempting to kill her in order to obtain her transformation brooch. That joyous concept brought a fleeting yet tremendous smile to his lips. The later report within the pile that described the battle between the senshi and the Shitennou eviscerated that smile, for not only was Sailor Moon far more powerful and skilled than he recalled, but one of the generals was killed and another turned to their side.

"_So… that means I'm now the last of the Shitennou. All of the hard work they did to ensure the advent of the rightful Kingdom of Earth will go to waste if I fail at my mission."_ His gaze turned steely as it focused on a distant wall of his room. _"However, I will not fail this time, for my fate will be far worse than Eternal Sleep if that happens. Furthermore, I cannot allow the senshi the satisfaction of knowing that they've beaten us, the greatest warriors of this planet, if not this solar system, so easily. Once we raise Metalia and build our kingdom, I will ensure that the senshi receive the appropriate punishment for their resistance, especially for killing Zoisite."_

He then started to peruse the summarization of the Dark Kingdom's newest plan to gather energy by means of a massive army of youmas when something abruptly disrupted his attention. From the corner of his eye he witnessed the large screen that composed a section of the communication system briefly light up before displaying the bearded face of Commander Marakof. The fact that Jadeite didn't bother to look toward the display failed to detract the man from addressing him over the speaker.

"General Jadeite, I'm glad to see that you're awake and that you found the information we left for you."

"A lot has happened while I was sentenced to Eternal Sleep," Jadeite replied with a tone of nonchalance, although a slight bit of petulance could be detected.

"That is true, sir. However, we're well on the way to rectifying that situation with our current plan."

"I assume you're talking about the youmas. I'm reading about it right now. If nothing else, it's a fairly… _ambitious_ plan."

"Do keep in mind you were liberated from Eternal Sleep specifically to lead this force of youmas. It's a sign that Beryl has confidence in you," Marakof stated more forcefully.

Jadeite felt a wave of anger wash over him. "I am aware of it and I fully appreciate that she thinks so highly of me. I only wish that she had chosen a less extreme method of punishing my past failures, especially given that all of them were due to the unforeseen meddling of the senshi in our plans."

"Beryl is a lot calmer now than she was at that time, and I'm sure that when you speak with her later that she will be more understanding of that fact."

"I got that feeling when she freed me from that crystal." His irritation had since subsided, replaced by feelings of frustration and resignation that caused him to sigh loudly. "So, what is the purpose of this call, might I ask?"

"In fifteen minutes we're meeting in the planning room to discuss the new strategy for gathering energy while hopefully mitigating any response from the senshi."

Jadeite reached into his jacket pocket and removed a large gold pocket watch. Unfortunately, it had stopped working the moment Beryl, in her fit of rage, encased him within the crystal that served as his tomb for several months. At some point in the near future he would need to repair the watch and adjust the time so that once again it would be useful to him. In the interim he would be forced to rely on the clock hanging on his wall that was set to Japan standard time and currently showed a time of thirty minutes before midnight. That was less of an inconvenience, however, as it meant that he knew when the senshi likely would be active. Given the displayed time the girls should have been sound asleep.

"I will be there. I am curious about whatever plan you guys have constructed that somehow accounts for the omnipresent senshi."

"The crux of the strategy came from Beryl. It's useless to go into too much detail right now, given we're going to be spending much more time talking about it shortly. However, I do believe it's a necessary departure from our typical methods, and I predict you will be quite intrigued."

"I certainly hope so," Jadeite said somberly. "If there's anything that needs to be changed around here, it's that."

"Anyway, I'll leave you to your reading. I'll alert you again when the meeting is due to start." Marakof's face soon disappeared and the screen turned dark.

Jadeite shifted his eyes back to the papers and the photographs strewn across his table and returned to his task of gaining a far better appreciation of his opponents. The idea of a new strategy energized him beyond the fact that he was resurrected from his tomb of Eternal Sleep. However, he couldn't help but wonder, if only briefly, whether the queen's direct participation in the planning stages was a benefit or a hindrance to their chances of success.

"_I guess having her involved really can't be much of a bad thing, considering what came beforehand,"_ he mused while giving a wry grin to nobody in particular.

—|1|2|**3**|—

Jadeite's intuition told him that it would have been a terrible idea to teleport directly into the planning room. It was right. As soon as he opened the door to the relatively small chamber he was greeted with the sight of thirteen men and women in steel blue uniforms, the typical garb of Beryl's personal guard. Seven of the individuals stood in rather close proximity along the wall opposite the trio of monitors that hung from the ceiling, a consequence of the room being designed for a much smaller number of people. The other six occupied the chairs at the sides of the long table, leaving open the chairs at either end, presumably for Jadeite and Beryl. Commander Marakof immediately was recognizable from his large stature—at six feet and three inches, he was the tallest person in the room—and the red trim of his jacket. Had he possessed much greater skill at handling magical energy he might have been one of the Shitennou, but the abilities Jadeite enjoyed were extraordinarily rare.

"I'm glad to see you've made it here, and that you arrived early as usual," Marakof said with a welcoming tone and a slow nod of his head as he and the other seated members of Beryl's guard stood at attention in deference to the general.

He returned the nod and walked to the seat furthest from the door, one of only two left vacant. The few lucky enough and sufficiently ranked to have a chair took his action as a cue to sit, whereas the others had no choice but to remain standing.

"Welcome back, General Jadeite." The dark-haired woman who addressed him wore a silver-trimmed jacket, one that indicated her rank as a major.

"Thank you, Analiese." Although she was the only one to explicitly say so, he could tell from the pleased expressions of everyone within the room that they shared her sentiments. "By the way, congratulations on your promotion," he quickly added, drawing a light smile from the woman in return.

"With the current leadership situation, it's possible she may be seeing another promotion soon," Marakof nonchalantly stated. "As it stands right now, we have a dearth of individuals in key positions for our new strategy."

"I see. That may make sense, but at the same time we don't want to make our forces top-heavy."

"I can assure you that you describe an unlikely situation. We only have two generals right now. Sazaratha, a demon—in both senses of the word—who originally was one of Metalia's assistants, was recently promoted to the rank of general."

That revelation immediately piqued Jadeite's curiosity. "Why was this Sazaratha promoted?"

"We were short-handed in the number of people who were as skilled as you and the other Shitennou members in handling dark energy, teleportation, and wrangling youmas. It, or rather _she_, given her proclivity for assuming a female form, was the only one alive at the time who possessed those crucial capabilities."

"I understand. But, if that's the case, why isn't she here at this meeting?" One of his eyebrows reflexively lifted in response to his confusion.

Marakof gave his superior a curt nod of understanding. "Quite frankly, Beryl doesn't completely trust her, for good reason, and didn't want her to attend. Furthermore, as far as any of us could tell she's not even here at the moment. It's anybody's guess what she's up to right now."

"Hmmm… well, that certainly can be an issue."

"Anyway, you inquired about our force structure. We're rearranging the upper echelon of our command structure to fit our new mission, and the thirteen people you see in this room will be directly involved in that."

Although he knew everyone sitting and standing within the chamber quite well, Jadeite slowly turned his head to look at each of the officers. "It seems like a fairly risky move."

"It very well might be, but I'm prepared to make such a change." Nobody needed to turn to the doorway to see that the voice responsible for delivering such a bold statement belonged to Beryl. Given her identity, however, no one wasted any time in standing erect and bowing deeply in the direction of their queen.

"You may be seated," she calmly ordered as she approached the unoccupied chair and sat down. Upon noticing the seven guards still standing at the side of the room she shook her head in disappointment. "I guess at some point in the future we're going to need to find or build a larger room for this, but that is for later. Right now we're here to discuss our new strategy for obtaining energy for Metalia in a rapid and efficient manner, hopefully with minimal interference from the senshi. However, before we begin, I'm going to seal this room so that our conversation remains private."

Beryl then waved her hand in a sweeping arc in front of her body, temporarily filling the room with a dim red light. The glow soon dissipated, leaving no visible sign that anything had changed, but the queen's contented smile informed everyone that whatever she did must have worked.

"There. Now, nobody can eavesdrop on our meeting or, worse, teleport into the room, or into any of your personal quarters for that matter." She then gazed at the general sitting at the opposite end of the table, and any hint of arrogance soon disappeared from her countenance. "There's much I want to discuss, but I think my first order of business would be to extend an official apology on the part of the Kingdom, as well as my personal apology, to Jadeite for my rash decision to sentence him to Eternal Sleep."

"I fully accept your apology, your highness, and I'm quite honored to be back and working for you."

"And I'm glad to have you back," she said with a light smile that momentarily stunned the blond-haired man.

With that crucial issue properly managed, she knew she could return to the true purpose of the meeting. The unusually warm expression shifted to one of seriousness as she pushed one of the buttons on the keypad sitting before her. In response, the center monitor displayed an organizational chart detailing the eight official duties, bifurcated into five "Field Operations" and three "Home Operations" assignments, and the hierarchy of ranks designated to fulfill those tasks. The leftmost monitor showed the names of every officer within the room with their new ranks and missions listed alongside. The use of the two terms piqued Jadeite's interest as they implied that the people chosen for those roles would be sent away from the multitude of caverns that composed their base. It marked a tremendous departure from Beryl's typical insistence of minimizing the number of people who left, partially to maximize her personal protection. However, the failure of that previous strategy was exposed by the ability of the senshi to infiltrate the base and almost defeat the queen within her own throne room. In light of that, it no longer made sense to stay within the darkness of their base if they could achieve far more success outside.

"Now, the second part of my agenda is to reveal the new organization for our forces as it relates to our change in mission," Beryl announced, slowly moving her gaze about the room while she spoke. "It took a long time, and a near disaster that occurred _way_ too close to home, for me to realize the need to rethink our strategy and distribute forces accordingly. Yet, as you can see, I have done exactly that, and as a result I have promoted some of you and reassigned almost all of you."

After completing that sentence, she pushed her tall frame from the seat and walked until she stood next to the center monitor. Each of them had suffered dozens of meetings and immediately deduced from her posture she soon would commence a presentation. However, none of them had ever expected the self-styled monarch to perform an act that was typical of her subordinates, and the collective facial expressions, accentuated by the utter silence, said as much. In fact, it said so much that her burgeoning annoyance at the scene deeply compelled her to quell their concerns.

"If my desire to take a more active role surprises you, then I would advise you to get used to it. We will be meeting like this once every month. I refuse to just sit back and watch the birth of our rightful kingdom slip further and further into the distance due to that disgusting princess and her senshi."

The shocked countenances that existed before the queen's comments immediately disappeared, much to her satisfaction. Not that it was ever a problem for her, but the statement also attracted their undivided attention to her ensuing explanation. She immediately seized the opportunity to describe the changes she had made to her forces, using the large monitor and the text that it displayed to emphasize her points. In particular she highlighted the organization of Field Operations, which was subdivided into Core Operations and Support Operations. The former was further divided into the duties "energy gathering" and "combat," whereas the latter contained the tasks "intelligence," "communications," and "transportation".

"Anyway, for anyone associated with Field Operations, you will spend most of your time outside of this base," she said more composedly. "The captains in charge of Core Operations will answer to Major Grayson. The other three captains associated with Support Operations will be under the command of Major Kamei. This overall group will be led by Commander Marakof."

Marakof solemnly nodded his head. "I wholeheartedly accept this new command, and I hope to not disappoint you, your highness."

"That's exactly why I chose you for this vital task."

She turned her gaze to the reasonably shorter woman sitting beside the tall, slightly graying man. At the same time, she accentuated the portion of the chart that detailed operations occurring almost wholly within the base. That was partitioned into Defense Operations and Home Support Operations, with the second category consisting of "field liaison" and "youma production" duties.

"Commander Analiese, you will be in charge of Home Operations. Major Salomon of Home Support Operations and Major Ortega of Defense Operations will be under your purview."

"Understood, your highness," Analiese firmly replied, her statement punctuated with a sharp nod. The other two majors, one of whom was newly minted that evening, and the captains serving them also nodded in affirmation of the queen's order.

The faint smile on Beryl's lips revealed her contentment, allowing her to easily move to the third point of her meeting. "Now, I want to let you all know what I think our newest strategy should be for gathering energy."

She summoned a large map of Tokyo prefecture on the left monitor and an inset of the eastern region of the prefecture on the right monitor. The screen in the middle displayed the wards of Minato, Adachi, and Katsushika, in their proper orientations and distances from one another.

"What I plan to do is shift our focus from Juuban District within Minato Ward to the wards of Adachi and Katsushika. The reason for this is simple: Juuban is where the senshi are or were known to reside. I want us to operate in a region where the senshi are not known to live. Granted, we have no information on the three newest members of the senshi, the supposed outer senshi, and that will always be an issue for us. Furthermore, as we all know by now, both the princess and Sailor Mercury have disappeared from tracking. Not only did we lose three of our youmas in the process, but it makes it impossible for us to ascertain their whereabouts."

"Do you think they're going to be anywhere close to Minato?" Jadeite asked.

"My instinct tells me that they probably will be as far away from that ward as possible. However, we have no idea where in Japan they could be, assuming they're still within the country."

"It is possible they are staying with relatives in different city?" Grayson asked, his characteristic deep baritone echoing throughout the small room.

"Very possible, I would assume," Marakof replied. "The only issue is determining where they are."

"We don't have any solid information on the extended families of all of the senshi, particularly that of the princess," Analiese added.

"Well then, we know at least one of the people within this room actually has a job in the near future," Beryl sarcastically stated as she momentarily stared at the captain she picked to run intelligence, who fidgeted slightly under the heat of the powerful woman's gaze, but otherwise displayed great calm and even managed a curt nod.

"Is there anything special about Adachi and Katsushika?" Jadeite asked, expertly returning the discussion to the main point.

"The main reason I chose those wards was that they were spatially distant from Minato, yet were in a reasonably populated area so that deploying youmas there to gather energy would be worthwhile," Beryl answered.

"Wouldn't targeting a completely separate city achieve the same effect?" Salomon asked.

"Maybe so, but the fact that most of our resources are in Minato, with no easy way of transporting them in the absence of teleportation for everyone except Jadeite and a few of our youmas, limits our options at the current time." Beryl turned her eyes down to gaze at the dark brown wood of the table and released a heavy sigh of disappointment. She then directed her melancholic gaze at Kamei. "The fact that we need to know accurately where to teleport is the second reason I didn't choose regions much farther from Minato. We'll have to ensure that Jadeite and whatever youmas we decide to employ become intimately familiar with the area, but the only way we can get to Adachi or Katsushika is by more common means."

"That makes sense," Kamei replied while tentatively nodding. "However, I hope that we could expand much farther as quickly as possible."

"That, indeed, is my plan as well."

She pushed another button on the keypad, bringing up a summary of the current state of the Dark Kingdom's youmas on the left monitor. It showed that there were forty-seven total, with five dedicated to the task of gathering energy from humans, nineteen skilled at combat, and the remaining twenty-three specialists at reconnaissance. Fifteen of the latter youma type were deployed within Juuban in a fruitless search for the princess or were closely monitoring the remaining guardian senshi.

"The other part of my plan is to conduct simultaneous energy-gathering missions in separate locations," Beryl said more confidently. "The idea is that having more than one youma at work increases the amount of energy we can obtain at any time. It has the bonus of preventing the loss of one youma by the senshi from completely devastating our mission. Furthermore, the distance between the youmas should complicate any response by the senshi."

On the surface the plan looked reasonable, but Jadeite remained skeptical. "How would distance alone stop the senshi from destroying those youmas? Our energy-gathering youmas are pathetic at combat and would not stand a chance against any of the senshi except for Mercury. Also, they have Kunzite, which should allow them to cover great distances at ease via teleportation."

"I agree with you that it would be folly to leave the energy-gathering youmas by themselves." Beryl grinned, revealing her excitement in relaying the next part of her scheme. "That is why my initial plan is to have reconnaissance youmas accompany them. In the event of an attack or if senshi are detected nearby, they could alert us and enable us to deploy the combat-oriented youmas. The exact plan for how to achieve this is something I expect you and your commanders to construct, but I think that is a wise starting position."

"That it is, your highness. On its own it's not foolproof, but I'm sure we can improve upon it."

"Very well." She then pushed herself up from her chair, prompting everyone else to do the same, and slowly looked over her officers once again. "That is all I wanted to say for right now. Even though I gave plenty of specifics about our new strategy, it is far from complete, giving each of you plenty of space to find the best method of carrying out your tasks. I picked each of you for your individual roles because I sincerely believe you are the best suited for your missions. Do not forget that."

"We won't, your highness," Marakof and Analiese practically said in unison.

"Oh, and there's one last thing I need to do before departing," Beryl added, almost as an afterthought. She closed her eyes and fell into a trance-like state, her body slowly radiating bright red luminescence as she concentrated. Seconds later, several far more intense explosions of gold light occurred throughout the room as the glow surrounding the queen diminished.

"Congratulations on your promotions," Beryl evenly stated before she teleported from the planning room in a blast of red light.

Major Analiese looked down at her uniform and saw with widened dark brown eyes that the trim had changed from its previous silver hue to red. With that alteration, she had become a true Commander in her queen's ranks, and it excited and elated her. Other people experienced similar emotions upon witnessing the tangible evidence of their new ranks. However, after a minute or so of ebullience, the mood turned somber as they knew they had to demonstrate to their queen that they fully deserved their stations. That mindset drove them to immediately start designing, in earnest, a far more detailed plan for gathering energy. It was a task that kept that baker's dozen of officers stuck inside that cramped room for several hours, but they considered it a worthwhile sacrifice given the complexities of their nascent plot.

_Originally published February 4, 2013._

_Modified chapter published June 6, 2013._


	4. Family

**4 | Family**

Bright yellow sunlight filtered through the spaces between the venetian blinds and cast narrow pillars of light across the room. One of those pillars just happened to fall across the reposing figure of a golden-haired blonde soundly sleeping in her cot. A long pigtail fell across the floor and was captured by another column of light, causing the thick strands to practically glow in its presence. It was a scene of absolute beauty and tranquility, something that neither the sleeping girl nor the one silently gazing while sitting at the edge of her bed had experienced in quite a long time. The quiet observer wanted to do nothing more than remain there and soak in the magnificence of the lovely picture painted before her. However, there was something far more important and special that she and the girl she passively watched had to do later that morning, which meant she begrudgingly had to destroy that peaceful image. She slowly tiptoed her way to the side of the cot and gently placed a hand on the girl's shoulder.

"It's time to wake up, Usagi-chan," Ami whispered.

"Just a few more minutes…" the blonde groggily mumbled. Her eyes steadfastly remained shuttered, refusing to consider the concept of accepting light without the proper stimulus.

Ami grinned and giggled softly. "We have to get ready to see your parents and brother at the hospital this morning. I'm sure you won't want to miss that."

She was fortunate to retain some semblance of quick reflexes despite the earliness of the day and her extended disappearance. They came quite in handy as Usagi shot up from the cot and into a vertical position, barely grazing her nose in the process.

"What time is it?" She frantically searched around for a clock or other timepiece. "I don't want to be late! Not for that!"

"Don't worry, Usagi-chan. It's six o'clock in the morning, and they start letting in visitors at eight."

Usagi's chest moved forward as she heaved a tremendous sigh of relief. "I want to be sure to see them the first chance I get today," she said softly. Her tone was mostly cheerful, but there was the smallest hint of disappointment that Ami readily detected.

"I'm sorry we didn't get an opportunity to see them last night." She lowered her head in similar display of regret.

"It's not your fault, Ami-chan." Like magic, her own feelings of despair disappeared as she directed her concerns at her best friend. "The train ride was three hours by itself, never mind the fun of getting to Tokyo Station undetected, buying the tickets, and waiting for the train, all of which took another hour. You couldn't control any of that, so don't feel bad about it."

"I know, I know…" She turned her eyes toward the window as she released a much smaller yet equally comforting sigh. "It's just all so horrible that we even have to go through this, although I'm sure it's far worse for you since it was your family that they tried to kill."

"But they failed, and now they'll never get another shot at it. That's one thing I'm going to make sure happens if I do nothing else," Usagi said with impressive resolve.

Ami returned her gaze to her princess. "And I'll do everything in my power to help you, Usagi-chan."

"I absolutely believe you." Utter silence dominated for the next few moments before the blonde relaxed and smiled warmly at her friend. "So, what should we do for the next hour or so?"

"Beyond the obvious, you should probably tell us more of what happened to you in the Dark Kingdom. We really couldn't talk about that on the train."

Usagi emphatically nodded in agreement. "You have _no_ idea how much I have to say about all of that. It was complete and utter hell for every second I was there, and I had no idea if I would survive." She paused for a moment before continuing in a tone that lacked its earlier resentment. "I could probably write a whole book about my experience, a pretty compelling one at that, if I didn't have to keep my identity secret."

"But both our families and the Dark Kingdom know about us already."

"True, but I don't think telling the entire world about us being senshi is a good idea."

"I see your point," Ami said a few seconds later as she slowly nodded her head in understanding. "If they know we're senshi, and that there's this huge evil force using dark magic that's trying to take over the planet, then there's likely going to be mass panic that ultimately will make our jobs much more difficult."

"And the last thing any of us need is our lives becoming more difficult than it already is." Usagi's mood soon became far more mirthful and she began to chuckle. "Anyway, I don't want to spoil the whole story, and I want my parents and brother to know as well, so you'll just have to wait for me to tell everyone else when we get to the hospital."

"In that case, I guess I can wait."

Ami smiled and, inexorably, began to giggle as well. The two continued to laugh until light tap on the bedroom door seconds later interrupted their reverie. Two pairs of eyes turned to the threshold and gazed at the tall brunette, who in turn peacefully stared at them while displaying a beaming smile on her lips.

"I see the two of you are awake."

Ami nodded. "We were trying to determine what to do before we go to the hospital to see Usagi-chan's family."

"Well, one thing we can do is get Usagi a new cell phone. Her last phone was destroyed when she was captured."

"Last two phones, actually," Usagi whispered. A slight blush of embarrassment covered her cheeks as her head drooped to point her eyes at the floor.

Saeko's grin only widened at the sight. "Don't worry about it, Usagi, as I have no qualms about doing this for you. Besides, you'll absolutely need a phone to contact us and your parents when you'll inevitably be away from us."

"Thanks, Saeko-san!" Usagi accentuated her joy by leaping to her feet, running to the slightly surprised woman, and wrapping her arms around her in a tight hug. Ami merely smiled in response to her friend's palpable elation.

"You're welcome," she replied with a chuckle as she lightly returned the embrace. Usagi soon let go and walked back to the cot, merrily grinning all the way. Saeko let the amusement subside before addressing the girls once again. "Now, what were you girls thinking of doing before we leave for the hospital?"

"Actually, not much, unfortunately," Ami answered somewhat sullenly while Usagi slowly nodded her head in muted agreement. "I think both of us are just getting used to being… here… alive, and in relative safety."

"That much I fully understand." Saeko walked to her daughter and enveloped her in a very tight and loving hug. "I'll tell you what. Why don't we go out for breakfast this morning? There's a nice little café not too far away from here that makes wonderful omelets. It'll be a nice family outing, one we haven't had in quite a long time." She turned and pointed a gentle smile at the pigtailed blonde. "That absolutely includes you too, Usagi. For everything you've done for me and my Ami, you certainly count as family to me."

Gratitude was an insufficient term to describe Usagi's emotions after hearing Saeko's heartfelt sentiments. Her face turned a deep crimson, partially from embarrassment but mostly from the sensation of joy at knowing Ami's mother effectively considered her another daughter. For all its brightness, the smile she held a few moments prior paled in comparison to the one that had taken to her lips. Furthermore, her eyes were the most dazzling and resplendent they had been since that period before her capture by the Dark Kingdom. There was no mistaking the sincere elation and wonderment the girl felt.

"I'm amazed, and yet so glad, that you consider me part of your family."

"It would only make sense. Anyway, I think we should get cleaned up so we can get out of here and get some breakfast. After that we'll go phone shopping and then head to the hospital so Usagi can see her _actual_ family."

Saeko turned to leave, but was stopped by the inquisitive look on Ami's face and the question her daughter asked soon thereafter. "So… are all of us are going to go shopping?"

"Well, maybe—" the doctor paused for a moment, humming lowly while slowly nodding—"no, I doubt it. I think it would be better for him to spend some time familiarizing himself with the layout of Kyoto. That way he can learn places to easily teleport in and out if the need arises." There was another contemplative pause, followed by a faint grin. "Also, he probably can't go out in that uniform as he'll attract too much attention. But, the good news is he's about the same height as my father, so at least he has some new clothing available. It may be a bit tight on him as he's slightly heavier in build, but it's only a temporary fixture."

Usagi tilted her head to one side in confusion. "Where is he going to get the money for that?"

"I left him fifty thousand yen to use for shopping and some suggestions on places where he can buy things without spending everything on one item." She instantly perceived the pair of disbelieving looks and sighed in resignation. "I know, I know… But it's not like I can just leave him in his current state. And, besides, it's not _that_ much money, so it's not a tremendous loss to me."

Everyone's attention was drawn to Luna, staring at her as she yawned, arched her back, stretched out her hind legs, and eventually spoke groggily. "I can accompany him to help him with his task."

Usagi shot the black cat a mischievous smirk. "Good morning to you, sleepyhead. It's good to know that, for once, I woke up before you."

"Although I did have to physically wake you up," Ami said with an equally jovial smile directed at the blonde.

"Details." Usagi's tone was as dismissive as the wave of her hand. She then winked at Ami before turning back to Luna. "Anyway, what do you know about buying clothing, let alone men's clothing?"

"Not much, but that's not the point. I want go with him so I know what's around here and can brief you all on the places where you could hide and transform, at the very least."

Saeko nodded. "That sounds reasonable. I hope you two don't spend all day touring the city, as I'm sure Usagi's family would want to meet you. Granted, they already know you're a talking cat, but for so long they've only thought of you as a toy and never actually had the opportunity to speak with you. I have a strong feeling they'll also want to meet Kunzite and hear what he has to say about the conflict."

"Very well. I'll be sure to let him know that." Luna then slowly walked from the room in search of their former nemesis.

Saeko turned to the girls. "Anyway, once you guys are ready, I need you to help me coax my parents away from their bedroom while I abscond with some clothes to leave for Kunzite." She gave them a playful wink before leaving the two senshi to complete their mission while preparing for her own.

—|1|**2**|—

The trio arrived at Kyoto City Hospital one minute after eight o'clock, which meant they were among the first people to be admitted to visit patients that morning. Their first task was to meet with the nurse stationed at the front desk to determine the identity of the room where the mother and young son of the "Tachibana" family was located. After that they wasted no time in traveling to that room, which was on the fourth floor of the moderately tall building. Their anticipation made the trip appear to take longer than the five minutes actually required to walk the halls and ride the elevator. They finally stopped before Room 416, the room within which Usagi could finally see her mother and brother after such a short yet horrific absence. Her father was in a different room as recuperation from his injuries required more specialized equipment and even more time. The pigtailed blonde was the one to softly knock to announce the presence of guests before slowly opening the door. Certainly, the nurse had forewarned the patients to expect guests, but she did not want to immediately barge in on the two and frighten them. She wanted the surprise to be as pleasant as possible.

"Who's the—_Usagi_? Is that you?" Ikuko asked as she looked upward from her book. Her tone changed from bleariness to astonishment the moment her eyes focused on the petite girl.

"Yep, it's me."

At first, the girl in question was calm as she walked into the room. However, she knew she could not maintain the façade for much longer and ran to her mother with her arms spread wide, ready to deliver a tremendous hug.

"Oh my _goodness_!" Her joy was unfettered as she welcomed as best as she could her daughter's embrace. The injuries prevented her from giving as tight a hug as she desired, but there was no doubt in the amount of love she conveyed through even that loose hold. "You have no idea how happy I am to see you!"

"You too, mama." Her tears soon found their way down her reddened cheeks and splattered against the light blue sheets. "I love you so much. I was so devastated when Beryl… when she… I mean, I thought you…"

She began to struggle with her words as she lacked enough poise at that moment to carefully and properly organize what she wanted to say. Furthermore, the whole concept she failed to vocalize—and the accompanying memories, despite their falseness—utterly terrified her. Instead she decided to just remain silent for a few moments and count her blessings for the fact her mother, brother, and father were still alive and well. She wished she could hug her father the same way she held her mother and would soon hold her brother. Maybe in a few days she would have that opportunity.

"It doesn't matter, honey. Not right now. I'm here now," Ikuko tenderly whispered into Usagi's ear while gently caressing the sobbing girl's back. "Thanks to you, we're all perfectly fine."

As mother and child embraced, the elder Tsukino could not see the other guests walk into the room. Shingo was also absorbed with the reunion involving his sister to pay much attention to them. That is, until he saw the girl with short blue hair silently and tranquilly walk into the center of the room. She was more than willing to stay in the background and allow Usagi all the time she needed. On the other hand, he was so shocked by her presence that he almost inadvertently shifted everyone's attention to the demure young woman before she was ready to receive it.

"I-is that really Ami-san?" He stuttered slightly as he pointed at the girl. Ami slowly nodded and gave a modest grin in response, drawing a similar smile from the boy. Before he could say anything else, he found himself wrapped in the slightly quavering arms of his older sister.

"I'm so happy to see you too, Shingo." Her hoarse voice did little to mask her cheerfulness. "I love you so much, and don't you ever think otherwise."

"I wouldn't doubt that for the world," he replied before frowning in confusion. "However, I don't get all the crying. It's not like anything happened to us."

Usagi shook her head and smiled at him, even while the tears continued to flow. "I know that now, but before…" she managed to say before she was overcome once again by her conflicting emotions of trepidation and exhilaration.

It was also the exact moment Ikuko finally noticed Ami. She stared at the girl and blinked a few times in wonderment before she could imagine the question within her mind. It took another second for her to spit out the words.

"Ami? Is that really you?" Her face held an expression of delight tempered with concern.

"Yes, Ikuko-san, it's me," Ami pleasantly answered in conjunction with a sharp nod of her head and a large smile.

"Usagi saved her," Saeko added while placing her hands on her daughter's shoulders and exhibiting an equally bright smile.

Ikuko nodded in understanding. "I'm so glad you don't have to live with the thought of never being able to see such a wonderful girl grow into a beautiful woman." It was not hard to detect the merriment in her tone, given her recent fright of possibly having lost her own daughter. "As strong as you appeared to be, I doubt you could have maintained that for much longer if she really was gone."

"Actually, I didn't maintain it at all." Her smile dimmed as she recalled that harrowing experience. "I cried the hardest I've ever cried in my life the night I found out my dear Ami had disappeared. Although I tried to hide it, I'm sure Usagi heard me the entire time."

A veil of melancholy covered Ami's face as she looked up to gaze at her mother. She quickly folded her hands in front of her, but not before swiping at her cheeks with one of them. Her curious actions soon attracted Ikuko's notice.

"What's wrong, Ami?"

She vociferously shook her head in denial. "N-nothing. I was j-just, um, s-somewhat taken aback by what my mom had to go through while I was gone. But since I'm here she shouldn't have to worry about that anymore." She punctuated her statement with a smile that wasn't quite as brilliant as the one that preceded it.

"Well, I think I'm okay now," Usagi said as she dabbed the few remaining tears from her cheeks with the sleeve of her sweater. "Now I may be able to tell you all what happened while I was in the Dark Kingdom. I'm sure you'd like to hear about that."

For the next hour, Usagi proceeded to tell in sometimes horrifying detail her story of the circumstances that surrounded her captivity. Naturally, she started with her apprehension by Sazaratha and her exposure to the same type of sapping stone that had imprisoned Ami's soul. She mentioned her encounter with Kunzite, but she was careful to not paint the general in the same terrible light in which she portrayed the demon. That was followed by what she knew and could sense from her captivity in the specially designed chamber and the mostly pointless interrogation that she realized was designed to break her rather than gather information from her. Then she told her captivated audience of the initially strange meeting with Beryl and the events that occurred near its conclusion.

"So… that's why you were crying so much when you saw us." Shingo's low voice revealed both the awe and terror he felt from hearing his sister's account.

Usagi slowly nodded her head in affirmation. "Part of me knew that it really wasn't you, but the absolute shock of seeing the very thing I feared the most completely broke me," she said softly. "I couldn't think straight after that, and that allowed Beryl to convince me to do something that I know now would have ended in disaster for all of us."

"What was that?" Ikuko asked.

The blonde took a huge breath of air and slowly released it to calm her emotions before continuing. "She wanted me to use the Silver Crystal to eliminate myself from all of existence. She told me I was the cause of everything bad that had happened in the past and now. Combined with having seen you all die—or at least thinking that was what I saw at the time—and her insistence that I could bring you all back if I did that, I wholeheartedly went along with it."

The revelation that Usagi almost destroyed herself and any chance at salvation for the planet understandably shook everyone, but it seemed to have a greater effect on Ami. That was exemplified by the tears that slowly fell from her dimmed eyes.

"Fortunately, I was rescued by the princess," Usagi said with a small but very warm smile on her lips.

She waited for a few moments and basked in the perplexed stares she knew she would receive from such a statement. Saeko was the first to take the bait, and quite emphatically at that.

"What on earth do you mean? Is it not true that you're the princess?"

"I am Princess Serenity, but until yesterday I wasn't _fully_ the princess." She took a few paces to a corner of the room where she could equally address everyone without turning back and forth so much. "This may sound strange, but ever since my birth I was occupied by two souls. One was mine and the other was the reincarnated soul of Princess Serenity from the Silver Millennium. She had stayed with me and observed my life as though it was hers. She saw everything I saw, heard everything I heard, and felt everything I felt. For the most part I had no idea of her existence with me until that night Ami-chan disappeared, my former friends attacked and tried to kill me, and the Dark Kingdom tried to kill my family."

She paused for a few moments to collect her thoughts and find a proper way of expressing them before continuing.

"I was completely depressed and apparently I was going to do something to harm myself." Her initially doleful tone, an emotion sparked by that dreadful memory, swiftly disappeared the longer she spoke. "That was when I heard her speaking to me within my mind, trying to calm me down and let me know that I would be fine despite everything that had happened to me. We then started to talk, and she told me her story of the end of the Silver Millennium and how the souls of the dead senshi were transported to the future by Queen Serenity's use of the crystal. Apparently I was never supposed to be a senshi, but the queen had made a mistake, and that's how I became Sailor Moon."

She paused again, prompted by what she considered blank stares borne from her rambling and interpreted them as a sign to quickly get to the point of her side story.

"_Anyway_, what I'm trying to say is that the appearance of the previous princess is what you saw when I transformed the last time," she said with a slightly faster cadence. "She's Serenity the Fifth, while _I'm_ Serenity the _Sixth_, and apparently I'm a lot more powerful now that I have my full powers." A resplendent smile concluded the speech.

"I see." Ikuko turned an equivalently bright grin to her daughter. "If she talks to you again, be sure to send her my thanks."

"Well…" Usagi's smile began to falter as she reflected on the absence of the late predecessor's soul. Her eyes started to dim and fill with tears. "I don't think that's going to happen, as my ascension to the princess required that she disappear forever." Thankfully that moment of melancholy was short-lived, destroyed by renewed enthusiasm and a forceful smile, just as the princess probably would have desired. "Though, I'm sure she already knows how much you appreciate what she did."

Her mother solemnly nodded, wishing she could have met the other aspect of Usagi's existence but nonetheless was grateful for the being's kindness. She was about to say something more about that, but a light tap at the door interrupted her. She stared at her daughter in confusion as the girl casually walked to the door and opened it, allowing an unknown man to enter the patient's room. She did not even know there was a person waiting outside, or even to expect other visitors that morning. Though the man's identity was a complete mystery to her, she immediately recognized the black cat he carefully nestled within his arms. Usagi's calm demeanor in his presence allayed her concerns, but only up to the moment introductions were made.

"I'm glad you could make it." Usagi then turned to her mother with a smile she hoped would put the woman at ease given her next words. "Mama, I'd like you to meet the person who helped us escape from the Dark Kingdom, Kunzite."

"W-wait… You mean, as in the general who tried to kill you—and tried to kill _us_?"

Before the girl could even nod she saw the paperback book fly across the room and almost nail the tall and impeccably dressed man right in the forehead. Fortunately it was the only thing Ikuko had available to her and her lone uninjured arm. Nevertheless, the stabbing pain that shot through her body failed to deter the woman's attempt at pushing herself up from the bed so she could lunge at Kunzite.

"Please calm down, mama! It's okay! He's no longer evil!" She ran to her mother and gently placed a hand on her shoulder, partly to reassure her but also to restrain her if necessary.

"It's true," Luna added as she leaped from the general's arms to the much colder tile floor. "Usagi purified him of evil and, as a result, rescued me and many other innocent people from the clutches of the Dark Kingdom."

Ikuko fell silent, but her anger and hatred did not immediately leave her just because of that proclamation. She stared fiercely at the man who she would have done her best to severely hurt in retaliation for trying to kill her daughter if she were not laid up in such a terrible condition. Her breathing slowed to a very deliberate pace as she attempted to calm down and understand what Usagi had just said. Though, the presence of that wretched man bowing before her did little to help matters.

"I deeply apologize for what I did to your daughter, and I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me. I feel terrible about the things I did while I was working with Beryl, and I want to do anything and everything within my power to ensure that woman does not succeed."

"Why should I believe you? After all you did to us, why should I suddenly think you've changed and now want to help us?"

"I fully understand your cynicism," Kunzite evenly, if not somewhat meekly, replied while continuing to bow. "It was hardly a day ago that I strove to ensure your daughter's death so that Beryl could enact her vengeance from the events of the past life. However, thanks to the wonderful power Usagi possesses, she was able to cure me of the curse that Beryl had placed on all of the Shitennou. So, once again I beg you for your forgiveness."

Ikuko finally turned her eyes to Usagi. The subtle nod and smile she received from the girl was enough to convince her. She heaved a long, slow sigh, but when she finally turned back to him her expression had softened considerably.

"I forgive you, Kunzite-san. You weren't your normal self when you were acting under Beryl—that I can understand now. I appreciate that you decided to help Usagi and her friends."

He finally stood erect upon hearing those words. "It's my pleasure to do so. Besides, with the Earth in as much danger as it currently faces, there is nothing I'd rather do than assist them in defeating Beryl and, more importantly, in ridding the planet of Metalia."

Ikuko nodded and allowed a tiny smile to tug at her lips. "Well, I'm sure that we'll have a better chance at success with your help." It widened as she gazed at the general. "By the way, I'm sorry for throwing that book at you."

He chuckled. "I'm happy it was only a book."

"So, Kunzite, I was just telling everyone about what happened while I was held captive by the Dark Kingdom," Usagi said, her enthusiasm, though muted, staunchly belying the cruel reality hinted by her words. "I was just about to tell everyone about the battle, but I thought you could give us some idea of what was happening on the other side."

"Well… most of our efforts—when I was working with them—were concentrated on capturing you. That was done by me and a being called Sazaratha. I don't know how much she told you about her—"

"She told them everything that we discussed yesterday evening," Saeko interjected.

"That's good," he said with a sharp nod. He then paused for a moment before continuing in a more dour tone. "There was something else that I forgot to tell you all about that evening, and that is that Artemis was captured by Sazaratha shortly before she found Usagi."

There were a series of gasps that echoed throughout the room from everyone, but none were as loud as Luna's. She looked up at the man with wide, focused eyes that were filling with tears.

"Do you know if he's okay?"

"Unfortunately, I have no idea. If I can find any good news in this, it's that she isn't interested in killing him. However, she put him through an amount of torture that rivals what had happened to the princess. Beyond that, I have no idea what her plan for him is, but I have a feeling, if we ever see him again, that we'll have to be very cautious around him."

Luna dropped her head and dejectedly sighed. Her tears slowly fell from her eyes and mottled her fur. She meandered to a corner of the room with the intent to privately sob, but found herself in Usagi's gentle arms instead.

"I'm sorry, Luna," Kunzite glumly added. "If I knew where she was keeping him, I would have—"

"I-it's okay." By then her voice was quite raspy, and understandably so. "I don't blame you for what happened to him. He's strong, and I'm sure he'll be fine."

"Luna…" Usagi whispered, feeling the same sorrow experienced by her advisor.

"It's fine, Usagi." Her dismal tone wholeheartedly disagreed with that simple statement. "Please continue with what you were saying."

The room was filled with awkward silence as Usagi tried to find a way to resume her explanation in the wake of such saddening news. It was made far more difficult by the silently sobbing cat she tenderly cradled. Eventually, she found the fortitude to speak, though it only served to defer to the general.

"Um… Anything more about what Beryl is planning?"

He took a deep breath that he audibly exhaled before answering. "Two major things I can think of. One of which I already told Usagi and Mizuno-sensei and that concerns the army of youmas that Beryl currently is constructing. Fortunately the senshi managed to destroy a quarter of her capacity, but that leaves fifteen hundred of these monsters to wreak havoc and gather energy for Metalia at a much faster rate than ever before." The apprehensive expression that covered everyone's faces, even those who knew the information beforehand, spoke of the seriousness of the news. "The second thing is that Beryl has set up an extensive surveillance network around Minato and is currently tracking all of the senshi. That is, of course, with the exception of you two."

"I guess our plan worked to perfection, then," Saeko said, unable to resist the urge to smirk.

Kunzite turned toward the doctor and gave her an equally mischievous grin. "Whatever you did, I'm absolutely delighted that you did it, as it makes it that much more difficult for Beryl to operate. She'll have to devote as much time and effort to making sure you all don't come from out-of-nowhere and ruin her activities. That being said, it does mean that you'll have to be extremely cautious if you decide to return to Juuban. There are youmas all over the place looking for you, and they all look exactly like humans so you wouldn't know about it until it's too late."

The grin that spread across Usagi's lips matched the deviousness in her voice. "I _do_ still have the disguise pen."

"But, even if you use that, they may be able to recognize your energy signature," Ami nervously added. "In that case the pen does nothing for you."

"That's true," Kunzite said. "The good news is that the youmas don't have the ability to detect such auras. Sazaratha does though, and she's extremely skilled and dogged in the art of tracking. But, she's just a single entity."

"So, that should be an overall advantage to you, right?" Ikuko innocently asked her daughter.

Though it was not directed at him, Kunzite was the one to answer her question. "If she were to just pass through Minato, the answer would be yes. It's a completely different story if she had to meet with the other girls, as that would bring her right to the very youmas tracking her. Again, if it's just a youma, she could confuse them by using the disguise pen, but if Sazaratha happened to be there, it could spell major trouble."

"Couldn't we just defeat her and get it over with?" In her annoyance, Usagi might have spoken louder than desired, but as everyone turned to stare at her she found that she did not care. "I mean, I should be as powerful as her by myself, and with the rest of the senshi at my side, even if we haven't yet dealt with our personal issues, we should easily beat her."

Kunzite sullenly looked at the floor and shook his head before turning his gaze back to the pigtailed blonde. "Do you remember when we last fought, one-on-one, as enemies?"

"Of course I do. It was only two days ago, after all, and my memory is not _that_ bad." She flippantly stuck her tongue out at him. "But, yes, I do, and I think I know where you're going with this. I beat you the last time we fought, even after you started to fight with all of your strength."

"Well, not _all_ of my strength, as I had to dedicate a fair amount of my magic in maintaining that force field, but your point stands." His stare slowly intensified. "The hitch here is that I didn't use any tricks beyond creating the barrier that prevented you from leaving. Sazaratha, on the other hand, is a far dirtier fighter. You did see how she deliberately avoided combating Uranus and Neptune to take out Zoisite at the perfect opportunity, right?"

"I remember her starting her attack and then randomly disappearing, which I thought was completely strange at the time."

"Exactly. The likelihood of her fighting you in a direct battle, one where she hadn't heavily stacked the odds in her favor, is very small. She would run away at the slightest sense of a disadvantage. That's not to say she's not a formidable warrior, and I think she's slightly more powerful than me at this juncture. It's just that she's more willing to use underhanded tactics to achieve victory."

"I think I understand," Ami said, her tone quiet and contemplative. "If we were to find Sazaratha and attempt to corner her, she would just teleport away to somewhere safe. The only time she would stand and fight is if she led us into a trap of some kind."

"Yes, that's pretty much correct," Kunzite replied with a nod.

After spending a few more minutes discussing Sazaratha's possible motivations, Usagi continued the far more captivating story of her ordeal. Inevitably, that meant discussion of her fellow senshi.

"All of us were in her throne room, and I was so close to, well, pretty much killing myself. It was the previous princess who stopped me from making that mistake, but I also was helped by Sailor Pluto, who I learned about earlier but had never actually met until that time. Pluto, along with Sailors Uranus and Neptune, make up what we call the outer senshi, and apparently they were unaware of their identities before my capture. They, along with Sailor Jupiter, had just burst into the throne room—literally—at the perfect time. Mako-chan had come to her senses at that time and had joined the outer senshi to help me escape."

Ami's eyes widened upon the mention of the tall brunette's name and, more specifically, the way she said it. "Mako… chan…? So, you're saying you've already forgiven her?"

"For the most part." The smile she gave Ami was not her brightest by far, but it was no less earnest. "There're still a few things I want to know before I fully forgive her, but I realized last night that she was sincere in her apology. What Mamoru-san said during the battle also made me see that. It's not to say that I'm still not somewhat mad at her for what she did to me, but for some reason I feel that her mindset was different from the others, and in a good way."

"Why don't you speak with her now, or at least as soon as possible, so the two of you can put that issue behind you and begin repairing your friendship?" Ikuko asked.

"I want to… I absolutely want to see her again and talk things out, but… I also… have to be careful in how I do it as I don't want to get caught, and… that takes time…" She averted her eyes from her mother's pleasant stare and instead pointed them at a blank spot on the wall.

Ikuko lightly frowned upon hearing her daughter's softly spoken words. "That sounds more like a pitiful excuse than anything."

Usagi slowly heaved a frustrated sigh as she knew her mother was utterly correct. "I know I'm probably being unfair to her, but a part of me feels she should have to suffer, if only a little bit, by waiting," she whispered. "It's wrong given that she doesn't feel that way anymore, but… but… I want her to feel just as hurt for what she did to me as I felt when she betrayed me and tried to kill me."

Ami stared at her best friend in stunned silence. She learned about the assault that occurred after her disappearance and the complete collapse of the relationship between Usagi and the other senshi prior to their last trip to her former home. Naturally the girl would be emotionally wounded by their treachery. Who wouldn't be, after all? But she did not expect the normally compassionate Usagi to behave in such a vindictive manner, especially to the one girl who arguably deserved it the least.

"I fully understand why you feel that way, but it's not healthy for you," Ikuko said with utmost sympathy. "Furthermore, it's not good for her, as I'm sure she becomes more depressed every day she believes you hate her."

"But I don't hate her."

"I know that. We all know that. But until you speak to her, she doesn't know that." She motioned for Usagi to approach her bedside, which the girl did without delay. That made it easy for her to tenderly stroke her daughter's back as she spoke. "All you have to do is talk to her and let her know how you feel and calmly ask her why she acted as she did. If you do that then I assure you everything will be just fine, but nothing good will happen if you don't talk to her."

Usagi felt a few tears well within her eyes as she pondered her mother's wise words. The woman was right, after all. She had to speak with Makoto, and sooner rather than later. Her original plan was to travel to Juuban that upcoming Saturday and meet with the senshi of lightning alone to determine what her newly restored friend was thinking at the time when she joined the others in attacking her. She had another request for the brunette as well before she would be satisfied and accept the girl's remorse and relay in turn her forgiveness. However, the only reason for delaying the encounter was pure spite on her part, an emotion she entirely disliked and hoped to avoid as it was too similar to the way they treated her. Yet, somehow, she had fallen into that same trap of responding to one's malice with unfettered cruelty, and though it was a purely natural reaction it was wholly inappropriate to aim it indiscriminately. Makoto had apologized to her the moment she had seen her, and felt true remorse when the other girls still believed in their hatred and doubt of her. The fact she was thinking about deliberately dragging the physically strong but otherwise quite gentle girl through such agony sickened her.

"I'll go speak to her tomorrow," Usagi said, her voice conveying a strange mixture of pure sadness and remarkable resolve. "I'll call her to let her know that I plan to visit her, but not in a form that's recognizable, just so she's not surprised."

"Are you sure it's a good idea to call—I mean, over normal cell phones?" Luna asked. "I would think it's a better idea to use the senshi communicator."

Usagi sluggishly nodded before her lips fell into a pout and her eyes slightly dimmed. "I don't have a communicator anymore. It was destroyed during the battle with Kunzite in the photo studio." She paused for a few seconds, her vacant stare locked onto the wall as she wallowed deep in thought before continuing in a low mumble. "It was the reason I wasn't able to tell them that I was still fighting and thus would be late in getting to the park."

"I guess we can have Ami call Makoto while I try to construct a replacement communicator for you," Luna said. She huffed, disappointed in having a suddenly busier week. "It will take a few days for me to do that, and I'll have to go to the special training room in Crown to do that."

Ami turned a probing gaze to Luna. "What exactly does that involve?"

"It's mainly just a lot of work in fabricating the specialized electronics. There's no real magic involved in the communicators themselves or in the way they work, and in all honesty they're no different than military radios except they're a lot, _lot_, smaller and more advanced. The bulk of the work—besides actually manufacturing the tiny circuits—goes into properly implementing the encryption algorithms and radio frequency-hopping algorithms and into ensuring the antennas are correctly shaped and are functional."

"Do you mind if I join you?" The resplendence within her eyes matched her eagerness.

"Not at all." Luna grinned, content in knowing that her week might be salvaged after all. "In fact, I'll definitely need the help, and with someone as smart as you assisting me I'll probably have the communicator ready even sooner, probably in two days max."

"Wait… two days?" an abruptly shocked and apprehensive Ami asked. "What about school?"

"I think I can cobble together a convincing excuse for why you were absent," Saeko replied while giving a slightly mischievous smile. "With your record, I truly don't think they'll mind very much. The more important thing is that you're very, very careful while in Juuban. The last thing we want is for you all to make a mistake and inadvertently tell Sazaratha or Beryl that we're here."

Ami sharply nodded while smiling brightly. "I absolutely don't think that will be a problem."

"Where are you going to stay if you're helping Luna make me a new communicator?" Usagi asked, momentarily forgetting the most obvious answer.

"It's the special training room. I can make anything I want in there, including a house for Ami to reside in, if necessary," Luna flatly replied before Ami could open her mouth to answer on her own. She readily ignored the furious glare directed at her from the normally docile girl.

Usagi chuckled at the scene before returning to her story. It was one that did not take long to finish as she was close to the finale before that latest digression.

"I guess, all in all, it was a pretty one-sided battle, wasn't it?" Saeko asked, though this question was more rhetorical than serious.

The blonde nodded enthusiastically. "Yep, although we were pretty lucky as well. They didn't have any youmas there, which would have made things a lot harder for us. They did try to send some, but the other girls defeated them while they were leading the civilians away to safety."

"Wait, _civilians_?" Ikuko and Saeko emphatically asked almost simultaneously.

"Um, I guess I forgot to mention that earlier, didn't I?" Usagi shrugged and looked askance. "There were innocent people there as well, victims of Kunzite when he was still evil. He had captured their souls and bound them within his body so that I wouldn't be able to defeat him without potentially killing them as well. Luna was one of them, as were Mariko-san, her boyfriend Kousuke-san, Azusa-san, and a bunch of girls that also were there at the photo studio." Kunzite stared at the ground with surprising meekness as she spoke. "Fortunately, their souls were rescued from his body when I purified him, but they had to be led away as there was still a pretty big fight going on and I didn't want them getting hurt."

"What did you end up doing with them?" Saeko asked Usagi, who in turn gazed at Kunzite with inquiring eyes. It took him little time to decipher her expression.

"I teleported them back to Juuban," he answered after heaving a reluctant sigh. "I told them they were safe following what they had to endure, but I also implored them to keep what they had seen and encountered a secret, at least until we're able to defeat Beryl."

"I don't think we have to worry about them revealing anything super important such as our identities, as they have no idea who we are," Usagi swiftly added.

Ami nervously shook her head. "But there's still the danger of them publicizing the enormity of the conflict and potentially creating a mass panic."

"I doubt that any of them would attempt to speak out," Kunzite said. "I told them of that possibility, and judging by their responses I'm certain they understand how much of a mistake it would be if they spoke out about their rescue at this time."

"Let's hope that remains the case," Saeko said.

After a long period of silence, Ikuko stated aloud the question that each person in that small room indubitably had asked themselves. "So… what is the plan now?"

Not surprisingly, given that morning discussion, there was only one reasonable answer and everyone knew it. Anybody could have given the proper reply. But none of them did, until the one person who had the most to gain and to lose from it spoke. Strangely, given the predicament, her words were accompanied by a wide smile.

"It's simple. We wait."

_Originally published February 18, 2013._

_Modified chapter published June 6, 2013._


	5. Bad News, Good News

**5 | Bad News, Good News**

"Owww… What the hell?" Massaging her scalp with her fingertips provided little comfort in face of debilitating pain that made her nearly fall from her low-lying bed. Instead, it merely resulted in a tangled mess of damp blonde hair. She winced again as her agony intensified with time. "It feels like my head is about to explode."

It was a rarity for Sazaratha to use the bed tucked away in a corner of that bleak chamber when she never needed to sleep. In fact, the sheer amount of exhaustion she felt was unprecedented. Yes, everything would have been worth it in the end, but it did not mean she had to enjoy suffering through the occasional downsides of having to occupy a human body to do her bidding. That was when the strain of intense mental contemplation transformed into raw, undulating pain. Her hands slid to the sides of her head and her eyes slammed shut as she attempted to suppress her sudden nausea. She felt as though she was on the verge of getting a migraine, though she only knew about them through her research and the misfortune of once choosing a victim who was susceptible to them. Needless to say, that body was quickly discarded, but her memory of the agony remained.

Nevertheless, no such explosion of her cranium occurred, to the chagrin of her foes. Instead, something even more unexpected happened to the demon. Intensely negative energy, a sinister aura more powerful than any she had ever wielded or even experienced, pervaded the room. The already dim and gloomy space fell into an inky blackness that blinded her. That side effect alone was unprecedented, but most amazing of all was that she felt her spirit slowly depart the body she had inhabited. Under normal circumstances that occurred solely upon swapping existing disguises or obtaining a new one from some hapless victim of her myriad schemes. Otherwise, she needed to occupy a human body to survive until she regained her former strength. Only two beings in the entire universe had that capability, and it was not the one resting incapacitated in another part of that subterranean lair.

"_Do you wish to speak to me, my master?"_

Her tone, though contained to her thoughts, was incredibly meek. On the other hand, the booming voice that replied within her mind was anything but. It forced the demon to cringe, an unusual event considering her history.

"_Who are you? I can sense you are not my Metalia. So, I ask again, who are you?"_

"_My master, I am Sazaratha, viceroy and governor-to-be of System W-0599-3, Galaxy XC-14087M, within your glorious empire."_ Subservience plainly was not a huge part of her personality, but when it mattered most she could kowtow with the best of them.

"_So _you_ are that underling of Metalia's that she had mentioned so frequently._" The voice's tone was slightly softer, yet never far from imposing. _"She has said so many good things about your ability, which was why she chose you to govern that crucial location. However, I have not heard from her since she had begun her conquest."_

"_My master, I regret to inform you that we encountered a small problem in the execution of our plan. We had successfully managed to induce one of the main leaders of W-0599-3 to attack the satellite garrison orbiting it on our behalf. However, the leader of that garrison was far more formidable than we had anticipated and managed to deal a great amount of damage to my superior."_

"_So, are you saying my Metalia is dead?"_ Its fury had returned, and it was an order of magnitude greater than before.

"_No, no, NO, my master! She is very much alive at this moment."_

"_Well, then, why am I speaking to _you_ and not to _her_?"_

It took her a few moments to judiciously formulate the words she hoped would draw the least amount of ire from the owner of that voice. _"Because… she is extraordinarily weak from the attack she had sustained. I am currently in the process of gathering energy from the inhabitants of this planet so that I can revive her."_

Raw ferocity subsided, only to be replaced by concern. _ "How long has she been so debilitated?"_

"_Just over three farsecs, my master, though I am sure it will require less than one system orbit—not even one tenth of a ferasec—for Metalia to rise again."_

Sazaratha and her cohorts measured time in units that differed drastically from those used on Earth, ones that were based on practical manners. For example, it took one farsec to traverse one-thousandth of the span between regions of the universe controlled by the originator of that ominious voice. In human terms it meant a lengthy 1630 years, though it was a mere pittance for truly advanced space-traveling beings such as Sazaratha. By that same token, one of her kind could blink the rough equivalent of an eye and miss the passing of a ferasec, yet in her frail human form those seven years became more of an eternity.

"_And what makes you so certain that her resuscitation will occur so quickly? I have heard the stories of the kingdom that orbits W-0599-3, and I have seen evidence of the tremendous power its leaders wield. It was why I ordered Metalia and not any other of my subordinates to take that region, and I assume it was the same reason she trusted you to govern it thereafter. I hesitate to believe that whatever attack the progeny of Selene had used could be overcome so quickly."_

"_But it is true, my master,"_ she quickly replied. _"Beryl, the creature Metalia chose to be her puppet, and her minions had utterly destroyed the forces of that kingdom. Serenity the Fourth, the kingdom's monarch at the time, was not at her full strength when she attempted to use the renowned sealing attack against Metalia, possibly because she was grieving over her daughter's death. Because of that, both she and Beryl had managed to break the seal."_

"_And what is this Beryl doing right now? Is this—"_ there was a short pause as the voice attempted to recall the term for that planet's main life forms_— "human a threat to my Metalia?"_

"_Actually, Beryl still is under Metalia's influence and is working to gather energy for her as well, but her ultimate goals differ from mine."_

"_Are you suggesting you no longer desire to dominate and govern W-0599-3?"_

"_In all honesty, my master, given the length of time I was forced to endure living on this wretched planet, I only seek its destruction and that of the entire system upon Metalia's resurgence."_

"_Well, I only require the suppression of the so-called Moon Kingdom, as that force is the greatest threat to my conquest of its galaxy. Whatever happens afterward is the choice of you and Metalia. From what you've told me, it appears she had successfully completed that part of the mission."_

"_Unfortunately, the princess of the Moon Kingdom was reincarnated along with her protectors, and they are working to prevent Metalia's revival. However, I do have a plan for dealing with them, and they are far weaker now than they were during that era."_

"_Very well. I hope not to hear any more about them when I arrive in the region."_

That statement palpably surprised Sazaratha. _"You-you're coming here, my master?"_

"_As I said earlier, I have received no communication from my Metalia for quite a while, so I decided to establish for myself the cause of this disturbing silence,"_ the voice calmly stated. _"I am pleased to hear that she will recover quickly by your estimation, but if she is remains incapacitated by the time of my arrival then I will take it upon myself to revive her."_

A menacing smirk would have crept upon her lips had she been in her human body, but the lack of that form did not minimize her joy. _"You need not worry, my master. She will be at her full strength long before you see any hint of_ _XC-14087M."_

"_I am already well within that galaxy. You don't have one-tenth of a ferasec to play around. You have less than a quarter of that time. You had better succeed in reviving Metalia by then. I can promise right now that you will face especially severe punishment for your failure if you don't."_

"_A-a-absolutely, my m-master!"_ Just like that, her confidence vaporized. _"I will work doubly hard to ensure you can speak to Metalia before your arrival."_

"_Then do so."_

That forceful command abruptly ended the conversation. The absolute murkiness that surrounded her gradually faded, and at the same time she felt her spirit slowly seep back into her indigenous host body. It was a figure that was curled up into the fetal position upon the soft duvet. As she gingerly opened her eyes and gazed at her dim world she once again felt sincere gratitude that no other being could have witnessed her moment of apparent weakness. However, that thought was short-lived as she realized her far greater concern.

"It looks like I'll have to strike soon if I want any chance of getting rid of the damned princess," she said in an annoyed whisper. "As much as I hate that stupid Beryl her actions are helping me greatly, so I'll leave her alone for now."

She brushed away the wayward strands of hair from her face and firmly pushed herself off of the bed. There was no time to waste, not when she had only three months in which to work an absolute miracle. She was as good as dead if Metalia was not revived by then. To make matters worse, none of the youmas would be ready for use in that short time. Yet, she already had a plan brewing in her mind to overcome that hurdle. All she needed was a few unwitting allies and a little bit of luck. That couldn't have been too hard to come by, right?

—|1|**2**|3|4|—

To an outsider, the scene mimicked the idyllic look and feel one expects of retirement. For the short-haired brunette playing the starring role, it was anything but. Sure, part of that image came from her relaxed posture, with her feet propped atop an ottoman while she reclined back into the soft cushions of her chair. The book she held in her hands was a heady romance novel, a far cry from the somewhat dry medical journals she was used to reading. She did not have to worry about being on call for work, and she had an entire house to herself. Well, herself and the cat lying at her feet. Save for the soft pattering of raindrops against the roof, it was quiet and it was peaceful.

It was also the furthest thing from the truth.

Saeko sighed as she grabbed a bookmark and stuck it between the pages before casually tossing the book onto the nearby table. As much as she liked the story, it was not nearly enough to staunch the nervousness that welled within her—that and a whole host of other emotions she deemed unnecessary and unwanted. She stood from her chair and meandered toward the kitchen. A quick glance at the digital print displayed on the oven's clock told her it was time for dinner, and she figured Luna was hungry as well.

"I hope you like _udon_." Her tone was flat. "There's not much of an option here, and if you want anything else I'd have to go out shopping."

"I'm fine with that." Luna jumped from the ottoman and followed the doctor into the kitchen.

Saeko prepared two bowls of noodles, giving herself the larger portion while saving the smaller one for her tinier guest. Luna wasted no time in leaping onto the table and digging in. On the other hand, she was a lot less enthusiastic about eating despite her obvious hunger. After a few minutes, she was only halfway done with her meal. Luna could sense the growing consternation billowing from the woman.

"I can feel that you're worried about something," she said upon pulling her nose out of the bowl.

Saeko shook her head and turned away. Try as she might, however, she could not maintain her silence for very long under the heat of the feline's intense stare.

"I… I just received a call from Daichi-kun regarding the hospital's investigation into my misuse of the clandestine patient transfer protocol." Watanabe Daichi was a manager at her former hospital who was involved in that very same scheme. More importantly, she considered him a very close friend. Yet, that wasn't at the forefront of her mind as she absently drummed her fingers against the table and spoke in a pensive whisper. "Personally, I don't care what happens to me if I lost my job. I've lived a fairly privileged life and I'm grateful for that, but at the same time I could lose all of that tomorrow and not care one whit. However, I'm not willing to put my Ami through that. She has enough troubles to deal with to have to go through such instability."

Luna slowly padded closer to Saeko and gazed tenderly at the woman. "What are you going to do?"

"It's not a big deal right now," she said while anxiously smiling. "I currently still have a job, though I'm officially on a paid vacation from it. Given that I'm living here in Kyoto now and there's no way I'm making the daily commute to Juuban, I'll have to find a new job here no matter what they plan to do to me."

"Do you have any offers from hospitals here?"

"Not yet. Depending on what happens with the investigation, there might not be any takers. Nobody wants to hire someone who flagrantly flouts such serious regulations. But, it could be much worse after all, so pending unemployment is nothing compared to the end of the world."

"Is there any way I could help you if you can't find a job?"

Saeko's chuckling gradually morphed into full-blown animated laughter. Her amusement subsided a few seconds later, the time when she reached over and gently patted Luna's head. The black feline squirmed in response.

"Thank you, but I'm afraid there's not much a cat can do, even if you are magical and possess the ability to speak. Besides, I'm not that cruel."

Luna pouted. "You know that's not what I meant."

"Oh, I know. But, the thought did get a nice laugh out of me, and that's what counts." She stood and began to pace aimlessly about the dining room. "I'm trying to maintain a positive attitude about what you could rightly call a dismal future. As I said, there's much worse that could happen, and I willingly broke the rules while knowing the consequences. But, I can't stop myself from fretting about what it means for my daughter. At the time, I was convinced that she was dead and I was doing whatever I could to ensure Usagi did not suffer the same fate. Now she's very much alive, and the consequences I was perfectly willing to endure alone might now affect both of us."

"That's why I'm willing to do whatever I can to help you," Luna said more impassionedly. "Both Ami and you are very important to me, and I can't just sit by and let you two suffer. I might not be able to do anything myself. And, even if we manage to find Artemis—and for Selene's sake I hope we do—the two of us still may not be of too much help. After all, we are just cats, as you said. But, I'm sure I can think of something to take the pressure off of you. I can be pretty crafty when necessary."

"So you say, and I greatly appreciate it. I really do." She walked to the table and picked up the empty bowl, sighing as her gaze lingered on her own bowl and the half-eaten meal within for an extra moment. "But, I still would rather deal with this myself. I'm not in dire straits yet, and I still have a few tricks of my own, even if I don't land a job at a hospital. I mean, I am still a doctor, and becoming a general practitioner remains an option as much as I hate it."

A smile came to her lips, one that was far brighter than any she had given thus far that night. She heard a contented purr from Luna when she carefully lifted the cat from the table and cradled her in her arms.

"If Ami decides to become a doctor, and I'm positive she'll be a wonderful doctor someday, then I'll be sure to inform her that the GP route is not the way to go."

"That wouldn't surprise me at all. She _is_ Sailor Mercury for a reason, and it's not just due to her magical skills. I remember some old saying; something akin to an apple not falling far from the tree."

Saeko gently caressed Luna, who had taken the opportunity to lie across the woman's stomach. She didn't mind as she could barely feel the feline's weight, and the warmth from her tiny body only further brightened her mood.

"You know, I could definitely get used to looking after you more often if you keep acting like this."

—|1|2|**3**|4|—

It was four o'clock in the evening when Makoto stepped into the hallway, her purse slung over her shoulder and the door securely locked behind her. She decided to take the stairs instead of the elevator to the lobby, mainly because it gave her a little more time to prepare. Once on the ground floor she glanced to her right and found a woman patiently sitting on one of the plush sofas. On any other day she would have ignored such a complete stranger, yet that day clearly was not any other day. Her immediate desire was to run up to the woman and hug her as tightly as possible, but her good sense quickly vetoed her emotions. Instead, she greeted the woman more civilly.

"Good evening, Shinohara-san." Though her tone ostensibly was flat, a slight lilt betrayed her excitement.

The woman stood from the sofa and gave Makoto a curt nod. "Good evening to you, Kino-san. How are things going for you?"

"About as well as can be expected, given the circumstances."

"That is wonderful news." She smiled warmly, which prompted the younger brunette to do the same. "Shall we go up to your place for a bit before heading out?"

Makoto stuck her arm out and pointed back toward the elevator doors and the nearby stairwell entrance. "After you."

The two walked to the door, which was locked and only accessible by a keycard. As a resident of the complex, Makoto had such a card and thus took the impediment in stride. However, her older acquaintance was merely a visitor, and the delay had clearly peeved her.

"Why does this building have to be so difficult?" Her tone was littered with annoyance. "We'd be in your apartment by now if they didn't require those stupid cards."

Makoto chuckled as she and her companion entered the stairwell, the door locking shut behind them. "They're there for security. Or at least, that's what they say."

She had barely finished speaking when a brilliant explosion of white light forced her to cover her face lest it blind her. When it finally dimmed, the woman who had accompanied her had completely disappeared. She was not frightened by the event, for she knew the woman was never really there in the first place—at least, not as a real entity. Not only was she prepared for the illusion, but she was wholly familiar with it. As much as she enjoyed being around the tall brunette for that short time, it paled horribly in comparison to what she ultimately desired from the shorter, younger blonde who emerged from the glow.

"Sorry about that, Mako-chan. I should have warned you before removing the disguise."

"Usagi-chan!" Makoto pulled her princess into a tight embrace, her emotions starting to overwhelm her. Fortunately, Usagi did not hesitate in returning that hug, though with a looser grip.

"Calm down, Mako-chan. We still have to actually get up to your place."

"Right, right." She slowly released the smaller girl and used her freed hands to wipe away the tears that welled within her eyes.

"Now, my plan is to go up to your apartment and have a nice, _long_ discussion about what happened last Friday and before that." It lasted only for a moment, but there was no mistaking the sternness in her voice. "However, I think we need to do a bit of shopping first."

"Shopping?"

"Grocery shopping. There are a few things I want to get for later tonight. It's not an awful lot, however, so it won't take very long."

"O-okay." The reply failed to alleviate Makoto's confusion.

"Obviously I'm going to need a new disguise for that, which I'm going to do right now." A wry grin played with Usagi's lips. "Consider that a warning."

She withdrew her Disguise Pen and held it high above her head. "Moon Power, change me into a well-off college student."

A bright flash of pink and white light heralded yet another disguise. Shorter green hair and more stylish fashion replaced her blond pigtails and dowdy school uniform.

"I thought you were already a well-off college student."

Usagi responded to the teasing with an equally playful huff. "Well, this is a different one. Clearly I can't go back out looking the same way I came in. It'll be too obvious."

The levity faded away, and there were a few seconds of silence before Makoto asked the question that, though not always at the forefront of her mind, had been bothering her ever since Ami's call that morning.

"Why are you hiding behind a disguise?"

Usagi sighed wistfully while shifting her gaze to her feet. "I'll tell you much more later tonight, I promise, but for now I think it's enough to say that it's for my own good… and yours as well." Even more silence passed before either girl spoke again. "Anyway, let's go before it gets dark."

Thirty minutes later the pair returned to Makoto's dwelling within the apartment complex, with Usagi cradling the paper bag in her arms. Her eyes widened the moment she walked through the door and saw the decorative interior for the first time. The Jovian senshi's strong connection with nature was evident throughout the residence, as was her tasteful choices in artwork. Furthermore, it was not quite as immaculate as Mamoru's apartment, but the fact that Makoto took great care in maintaining a relatively clean home was blatantly obvious.

"Wow! Your place is so beautiful!"

"Thanks." Makoto's cheeks flushed slightly as she pointed her princess toward the dining room area immediately abutting the kitchen. Usagi sat the bag down upon a small table that occupied that space. "I'm glad that you like it."

A friendly nod was Usagi's only warning before she quickly fell into a somberness that startled her hostess. With a brilliant flash of light her second disguise of the day disappeared, leaving a petite blonde who leveled an intense stare at an anxious brunette.

"Now with that done, I think we need to get to the true reason why I'm here."

"O-okay." Makoto blanched as various thoughts swam through her mind.

"There's no need to be afraid, Mako-chan. I think it's obvious that I don't have many hard feelings toward you, unlike I unfortunately still do with the other girls. Also, it may help you to know that I forgive you and that I'm close to considering you a friend once again."

That comment elicited a warm smile from Makoto and restored her confidence. She opened her mouth to respond, but quickly shut it as she heard the more distressing continuation.

"However, we're not quite there yet. I'm frustrated by the question I keep asking myself when I think back on what happened that day, and that's why you did it." She took a few steps closer to the taller girl while holding her focused gaze. Even as her voice softened, it never lacked fearsome resolve. "Why did you attack me along with the others? I could tell that you were not as committed as they were in trying to kill me, but that doesn't erase the fact that you attacked me. So, why?"

Makoto gradually took in a deep breath and held it for a few seconds before releasing it just as steadily. She felt absolutely sick to her stomach as she was reminded of her prior actions, but she fought the urge to break down and sob or do anything equally dramatic. That would have gotten her nowhere. Besides, it was an easy question to answer once she took a few moments to reflect on her past mindset.

"It's because, at that time, I was convinced that you had sold us out, as Minako had suggested," she calmly replied, albeit in a voice that barely was louder than a whisper. "After Ami died—or we thought she was dead at the time—and you didn't arrive in time to save her, I thought that you didn't care about her, or about any of us. I didn't want to think that you were working against us at the time, but… it was hard trying to maintain my belief in you as Ami kept getting worse." She paused for a few moments as she took another deep breath. "I hope you believe me when I say that I didn't hate you personally. Before that happened I hoped we could maintain some sort of friendship, even though I thought—incorrectly, I know—that you weren't our princess. But when Ami, um, disappeared after what Zoisite did to her, it was hard to think of anything other than the idea that you were a traitor. The last thing I ever wanted was to have someone I deeply liked and trusted betray me again. Ironically, I ended up betraying your trust instead."

Usagi lifted an eyebrow and tilted her head slightly to one side. "Again? What do you mean by that?"

Makoto's sigh was tinged with sadness and frustration, though that latter emotion was directed more at herself than her princess. She flopped down onto the nearby sofa, making it easier for Usagi to direct her attentive gaze without craning her neck upward.

"It pretty much has everything to do with what happened to me after my parents died. Neither my mom nor my dad really had any siblings to speak of, so there weren't any aunts or uncles I could stay with. Well, there actually was one, my aunt Kimiko, but in hindsight I'm probably more fortunate that I was tossed into the system as much as I hate it."

Usagi sat at the other end of the sofa next to Makoto, never breaking her stare. "I already know that you're an orphan."

"Yeah, but I never bothered telling anyone what I had to go through while being a ward of the state. Maybe other kids had a much better time at it, but those five years of my life had been an absolute hell. I would never wish such a fate on anyone, not even my worst enemies."

Usagi blanched and visibly shuddered as thoughts filled her mind of what might have ensued. "D-did someone try to hurt you while you were in there? You know, I've heard some stories about—"

"No. _Goodness_, no. It wasn't anything like that." An emphatic shake of her head accompanied the denial, and the combination seemed to swiftly put the blonde at ease. "Even at that age I wouldn't have ever let something as horrible and disgusting as that happen to me."

"Somehow, that doesn't really surprise me."

"Well, obviously I was a little smaller then, but I was no less fearsome. In a sense I had to act that way to make sure nobody would mess with me, though a lot of that was fueled by my anger at suddenly losing my family."

Usagi's blinked as her jaw dropped in disbelief. "I honestly can't imagine you being a bully, not even with what you did to me that night."

"I wasn't, and I'm not, but there were others who gladly played the part. I hated them with a passion. They learned quickly not to mess with me, but that lesson didn't necessarily translate when it meant bullying the other kids." She lifted a hand and waved it in front of her in a gesture of dismissal. "But, that's not the reason I had felt so angry at you and want to attack you—at least, not by itself."

"What is it then?"

Makoto did not immediately answer. Instead, she remained silent and ensconced within her own thoughts for several seconds before a miserable sigh signaled her willingness to speak.

"Pretty much anyone in the system was eligible for adoption as long as anyone actually wanted them. In my first few months there I wasn't really worried about that because I still desperately missed my parents and didn't quite fully understand that they would never come back to pick me up and take me away from that place. Then, for about a year after that, I didn't want to go to any other family as I couldn't imagine replacing the mother and father I had loved so much with anyone else. However, I soon began to come around to the idea of having parents who loved me and wanted me, even if they weren't my original parents. Of course, the older you are, the more difficult it is to find anyone who wants you."

Usagi nodded in understanding. "I remember Mamoru-san saying something like that when we were still together. It was very hard for him to get noticed, and eventually he ended up leaving the system on his own."

"It sucks, but it also makes sense, right?" She chuckled, but it was utterly mirthless. "Anyway, when I was ten years old, I met a couple who was interested in adopting older kids like me. They had already adopted two other kids and were interested in a third, and somehow I had caught their eye. I don't know how but it seemed like they really liked me, despite the record for so-called violence I had. I really liked them as well. The more we met and talked during those horribly brief visits, the more it felt like I was developing a bond with them. It eventually came to the point where they all but promised me I was the one and that they would adopt me instead of the other kids."

"What happened to make them change their minds?"

Makoto saw her vision blur as her eyes began to fill with tears. She turned away from Usagi, but it was too late to conceal her growing sorrow.

"There was a girl I knew at the time who had entered the system a little more than a year after I did. Her name was Yukari, and in almost no time we became very close. In fact, she was the closest thing to a true friend I had before meeting you, Usagi-chan, if not even more like actual family. Since she was a year younger than me, I treated her like my little sister and she treated me like an older sister. It was almost perfect. When that couple had come looking for someone to adopt, I wished hard that they'd pick both of us. However, they could only choose one, and by some strange luck they were more interested in me than in her."

"I imagine that created bad blood between the two of you." Her gaze was more compassionate than merely curious when she leaned closer to Makoto, apparently ready to tenderly embrace the girl at any moment.

"Everything seemed perfectly fine at the time between us, as far as I knew. She appeared genuinely happy for me. All of that was a lie though, and it was not just from her. A few months later, right about when that couple was about to make a decision, I found Yukari being physically threatened by another girl who was about my same age. I knew that girl had been a problem with some of the other kids before, and because of that I never really liked her. There was no way in hell I was about to let her get beat up by some stupid bully, so I did what I had done several times before. Only later did I find out how huge a mistake that was."

By then, Makoto had stopped trying to muffle her tears, and they streamed down her cheeks unabated.

"It turned out that the family interested in adopting me was also interested in adopting someone else, despite their promise to me. That someone else just happened to be that idiot girl I had beat up for trying to hurt Yukari. As you might imagine, that little act did not go over very well with them, and they ended up adopting her instead of me."

"Mako-chan…"

"The worst part about all of that is… Yukari knew. I don't know how she found out, but she knew. She was so jealous that they wanted to adopt me that instead of her that she sabotaged my chances. The whole attack was a set up to get me in trouble, and I was stupid enough to fall for it. I should have known something like that was going to happen. After that, nobody paid any interest in me again."

Makoto was fortunate to get to the end of her explanation before she was completely overcome by her uncontrollable sobbing. Usagi wasted no time in sliding closer to her friend so she could wrap her in a tender hug. Her own depression grew, borne from seeing the unabashed tears fall from a girl she considered to be far stronger, but she resisted the impulse to join her. Instead she continued to embrace the brunette for as long as she needed to do so. Her shoulder slowly became a damp mess during those few minutes, but she paid it no mind. It merely was the price of ensuring that Makoto fully recovered from the pain brought forth by recalling such a dreadful episode from her childhood.

"I-I'm sorry." Her crying had subsided, mainly because she had practically run out of tears, but Usagi's soothing touch was just as vital.

"Don't be. I understand now why you did what you did, and I don't hold it against you. I probably would have been just as hurt and angry if I were in your shoes and thought somebody close to me had destroyed my trust. And, anyway, I forgive you."

"I'm glad." A few more quiet sniffles finally marked the end of her crying spell. "It's just, I sometimes wonder how my life would have turned out had that never happened and they adopted me after all. Would it have been better than being ignored and shuffled around in the system for a few more years? Maybe. Maybe not. I don't really know. But, what I do know is that I eventually got to meet you, and that alone more than makes up for everything. You're my friend as well, my best friend, and I promise you that I will never, _ever_, do anything to hurt you like I did before."

This time it was Makoto who initiated the tight hug in which she wrapped Usagi. The blonde wholeheartedly returned the favor as a broad smile tugged at her lips. "I absolutely believe you, Mako-chan. "

The two separated once again, sharing a light chuckle between them as they did so. Makoto peered over her shoulder and spotted the paper bag that had rested on the table. Usagi saw her movement and stared in confusion at the girl for a few moments before realizing what she was looking at.

"Oh… that's for later, I guess. There're still a few things we have to discuss—or rather, that I have to tell you—that are very important."

"Well, I'm listening."

Usagi started with the events of her capture and the conclusion of the battle within Beryl's throne room, both cases during which the other girls were absent. The realization that her princess was horrifically tortured depressed Makoto, as she blamed herself for enabling her capture. It took Usagi many attempts to calm the brunette during and after her account. The subsequent stories were less dismal but were equally terrifying in what they portended. Makoto cringed when she learned of Sazaratha's existence, her plans for Earth, and what happened to the people whose guises she took for her own. She had a similar response upon hearing about the network of youmas dedicated to monitoring the guardian senshi.

"Now I see why you were disguised."

"I had to do that to prevent them from finding out I was here in Juuban and visiting with you."

"And… how did you get here?"

"I had Kunzite-san teleport us here. Ami-chan is here as well, but she's with Luna at the special training room in Crown working on a new communicator to replace the one that broke."

Makoto's brain nearly went numb from the multitude of brand-new information contained within that one sentence. "Wait… So, Ami-chan's here as well? And she's in a what-kind-of room?"

"A special training room. It's a room that Luna controls where she can create any scene she wants for the purpose of training. That's where I found out I actually knew how to fight as a senshi instead of just cowering and waiting for you all to do the work for me." She could not help but to smirk at that. "I'd strongly suggest using it whenever you get the opportunity, though it's a good idea to let Luna know ahead of time so that she can show you where it is."

"Right. But, then what is Ami-chan doing there again?"

"She's making me a new communicator to replace the one that broke while I was fighting Kunzite-san."

"I see." Makoto could not bear looking at her friend as an immense bout of melancholy swiftly consumed her. The floor became far more appealing to her. "That's why you didn't tell us that you were late, because you couldn't."

"Yes, but… that's nothing you have to worry about now!"

"Yeah…" She slowly returned her gaze to the blonde and gave her the faintest of smiles. "I'm okay. Really, I am. It's just… It's hard to suddenly realize why we all were so horribly wrong." Her smile grew larger, although Usagi could blatantly tell it was forced. "Anyway, I'm sure there's more you wanted to say."

"Um, not really." A shrug accompanied her uncertain words.

"Oh."

Usagi turned her head over her shoulder and stared at the bag of supplies sitting on the dining room table. "You know, I wanted to finish our talk by saying some silly thing along the lines of, 'Now, the last thing you have to do to fully earn my friendship is to teach me how to cook.' I know… pretty stupid, right? However, everything turned out way different from what I planned, and now I feel horrible that I even had such a thought."

A much larger and more sincere smile graced the tall girl's face. "You know, Usagi-chan, in all honesty I was thinking about what to bake for you in celebration of your arrival and our renewed friendship." She gently placed a hand on her princess's shoulder. "I don't know if you like lemon meringue pie, but I do know that I would like nothing more than to teach you how to make one, or anything else you want."

The promise of a delicious dessert was all she needed to say to pull Usagi from her funk. "Actually, that would be perfect."

—|1|2|3|**4**|—

With the proverbial clock ticking in her mind, Sazaratha bolted toward the wall, teleporting out of her personal chamber at the last moment with her typical flourish. Emerging into a hallway she continued her rapid pace until she saw something—or rather _somebody_—at the end of the corridor. Her stride ground to a halt.

"_Wait… what the hell?"_ She blinked a few times to ensure her eyes were not deceiving her. _ "I don't believe it."_

They were not.

Approaching her down that same hallway was a person she had never expected to see alive, let alone walk freely through the passageways of the Dark Kingdom. He was as good as dead. She had personally witnessed his demise, an unyielding form of mental and physical torture that had no end and from which nobody ever escaped. Had he somehow managed to break free of that eternal sleep?

"_No… that's impossible."_ She felt the anger boiling within her as each slowly approached the other. _"This has to be that bitch's doing. Somehow, I figured Marakof could not have been running the whole show by himself. I just didn't know if 'her highness' was personally involved, but now I know she isn't. She brought him back just because she would be completely useless without her Shitennou. The ultimate expression of irony, really."_

Her growing infuriation, however, had nothing to do with the idea she unwittingly had to compete for some lead role in Beryl's force. She never held any true loyalty toward the self-styled queen of the Earth. Instead, his mere presence complicated all of her burgeoning schemes and frustrated her true goal. He had to disappear or else she would lose everything she worked hard to attain. Her eyes narrowed upon her target, and her hand discretely slipped into a camouflaged pocket on her dress and tightly clutched at one of the two black crystals she had concealed within.

"_There's nobody around."_ That fact alone brought forth a grin that she fought hard to suppress.

The distance between the blonde demon and the fair-haired general in that narrow stone corridor gradually diminished. By that time he clearly recognized her presence, as his woefully blatant glare told her. But it did not matter. One quick jab and one-third of her problems would have been eliminated in an instant before anyone else even acknowledged his absence. Her fingers reflexively tightened around that stone. In her mind she replayed the precise motions she would have to make in order to perfectly execute the assassination of Beryl's prized lapdog despite his heightened defenses. She also reminisced on the immense joy she would experience upon seeing his demise and knowing that Beryl would become that much weaker against her. By that moment the two powerful beings were mere feet away from one another, and though he was extremely wary there was no possible way he could have guessed what was to befall him. As he entered her striking range her mind made one last calculation and concluded the planned assault had only one possible downside.

The thought gave her pause. Was killing Jadeite a big enough risk to make her forgo the obvious reward? She had only moments left to answer that question before it no longer even mattered.

_Originally published February 20, 2013._

_Modified chapter published June 6, 2013._


	6. Building Warriors

**6 | Building Warriors**

"I know you're really impressed with your new communicator, but you really need to stop playing with it out here."

The terse whisper snapped Usagi out of her daze and focused her attention on the apprehensive gaze pointed back at her. She hurriedly slipped the small pink device back into her purse and silently mouthed an apology to the person who had constructed the tool that had mesmerized her so. That person, a very agitated Ami, sighed in relief when she could no longer see her masterpiece.

"But, you can't blame me for wanting to stare at it." Usagi tugged her lips into a wide grin. "It's _so_ beautiful."

"I'm honestly thrilled that you like it so much, but you can't go showing it off in a public space, especially when we're trying to be inconspicuous." She turned her eyes away and lifted a hand to her mouth to conceal her giggles. "Also, the stuff on the inside is a lot prettier in my opinion."

"I'm not surprised you would think that."

Ami merely grinned and shook her head at that statement, deciding to shift the conversation to another, far more important topic. "So, I figure there's a reason we're meeting Mako-chan here and not anywhere else?"

"Of course. We have to show her the room. She needs—" she slowly eyed the people surrounding the pair in a manner Ami found shockingly adept in its furtiveness before leaning closer to her friend— "she needs the training. And so do you."

"I- I know." Her eyes began to water as her mood slowly collapsed along with her posture. "I apologize for letting you down so badly."

Usagi grasped Ami's hand beneath the table and spoke in a low but unmistakably caring voice. "You've never disappointed me, Ami-chan. Never."

"But, you wouldn't have been in this predicament if I could have fought against Zoisite." Despite her princess's caring touch, her tears began to stream down her cheeks. "The other girls wouldn't have tried to attack you. Sazaratha and Beryl would not have been able to capture you and torture you. You wouldn't have tried to kill…" That last, unfinished thought sent her over the edge into uncontrollable sobbing.

"Ami-chan…" Usagi immediately dispensed with merely holding her hand, instead pulling the despondent girl into a tight and yet incredibly tender hug. "_Shhh_. It's alright. None of that was your fault, okay? I don't blame you for any of that at all." Her whispered consolations were interrupted by a young woman who approached the table.

"Um… I hope I'm not interrupting anything." She bowed as an expression of confusion and repentance fell across her face. "I can come back later if you'd like?"

"Thanks Una—er, Furuhata-san for your understanding. We might need a few more minutes before we can order, as we're waiting for a friend to show up."

The waitress's weak smile disappeared behind a veil of professionalism as she bowed once again. "I'll be here whenever you're ready." She then turned and walked away.

"I-I'm sorry for losing my composure like that, Usagi-chan." Her crying spell had transformed her voice into a hoarse whisper, but at least she had regained enough composure to speak. "I know you don't think I had anything to do with the horrible things you had to endure, but I definitely believe otherwise. How can I possibly protect you if I can barely fight off the weakest youma?"

"You know as well as I do that you're not that weak." She began to lightly rub Ami's back, and it seemed to help pull the girl even further out of her melancholy. "Besides, the other senshi had just as much trouble fighting the youma as well, let alone having to deal with Zoisite on top of it."

"Maybe so, but they actually have offensive attacks to use against such youmas." More tears fell and further dampened Usagi's shoulder when she shook her head. "My so-called attack is creating the equivalent of bubbles. What good is that?"

"You're selling yourself short, Ami-chan."

"No, I'm being honest to myself and to you."

Usagi sucked in a deep breath and held it for a full second before slowly exhaling it in a sigh of frustration and absolute resolve. "No, you're only lying to yourself if you believe that you're no good, or that you can't possibly protect me. After all, you've already proved yourself to be better than good many times before. And, more importantly, you've saved my life. I wouldn't have even been around to be captured or any of that other stuff you're worrying about if you hadn't been there for me when I needed it most. Because of that, I believe in you. So, please, stop with this moping about already and believe in yourself, okay?"

That plea might have been what Ami needed to finally stop her tears, or maybe she just naturally ran short of tears to shed at that point. Whatever the case, there were only a few sniffles from the girl when she pulled away from Usagi's hug. She was met by a small yet tremendously warm smile when she gazed at her princess.

"I'm okay now. I promise. It's just, ever since the battle with Zoisite, at least up to the point when I lost all consciousness, I was feeling horribly inadequate. Those feelings resurfaced during the hospital visit when I finally found out what had happened to you after the ambush. Making the new communicators was as much a distraction from those painful thoughts as it was a labor of love."

"Well, we've already established that you're not inadequate, so you never have to worry about that ever again. So, no more tears from you. Between you just now and Mako-chan earlier this week, my shoulder's been getting quite a drenching." Her grin widened after Ami nodded and began to giggle. "Anyway, now that I have my Ami-chan here again and not that horribly depressed girl who took your place, how about sharing an ice cream sundae with me? I have a hankering for a great big strawberry and banana sundae myself, especially since _somebody_ decided not to share theirs with me last time." She opened her shoulder bag and directed a not-quite-fully serious glare at the black feline lying within.

"Hey, it's not—"

Before Luna could even really start that sentence, let alone complete it, she saw Usagi stick her tongue out at her and zip the bag nearly shut. She was left to do little more than grumble before lying on her stomach at the bottom of the bag and thinking, _"Don't think I won't get back at you for mistreating your advisor like this."_

Meanwhile, a subtle wave of Usagi's hand brought Unazuki, their waitress for the evening, to their table once again. The orange-haired girl was stunned to see Makoto walking up to and sitting down at their table at about the time she arrived to take their order.

"Sorry for being late," Makoto said as she sat down across the table from the other two. "I was held up for a short while in getting away from school."

"So, what would you like to—ah, Mako-chan!" Unazuki turned a bright smile to the oh-so familiar brunette, who readily returned the gesture. "I'm glad that you're much happier than the last time I got to see you." That smile quickly faded as she stared at the girl in wide-eyed confusion. "I see you're here, but where are the others? You usually meet with them at around this time."

"They, um, got stuck with school-related stuff and couldn't make it today." She shrugged as she glanced at Usagi and Ami. "Maybe they'll be by next time."

"I do want to see them again." Unazuki's suddenly dimmed eyes and slight pout nearly caught Makoto off-guard. "I do hope they're doing okay, and you as well. I know it's been tough missing Ami-chan since she had to move away so suddenly. And, I haven't seen Usagi-chan in such a long time that I'm starting to get worried. I hope she's doing well also."

In spite of her older acquaintance's dismal expression, she could not help but to grin and attempt to stifle a chuckle. "I'm sure you'll hear from both of them again really soon."

"I really hope so." She froze once she remembered that Makoto wasn't the only person at the table. "I'm so, so sorry you two. I didn't mean to ignore you. It's just that I know Makoto-chan here so well and I was surprised to see her here alone—well, not alone, but not with the people she usually hangs out with."

"We understand," Usagi said. It was convenient that the hand into which she coughed also helped to conceal her snickers as she tried to push herself from the brink of outright laughter. "Um, anyway, could we get your largest ice cream sundae…?"

Once Unazuki departed to have their orders completed, the three girls exploded into muffled cackling that, were they not in a public location, would have quickly spilled over into raucous laughter. It was easy for Makoto to understand their waitress's confusion given her recent experience, but that did not make it any less hilarious for her. Nor were the other two particularly saddened at the moment for taking advantage of a distant friend.

"Well, that went much better than expected," Ami whispered. A deep crimson blush covered her face for the second time in only a few minutes, but for a completely different reason than before.

"Mako-chan nearly blew it for us with that last line though," Usagi said with a playful wink directed at the girl.

Makoto lifted her hands up in front of her and waved them about in a defensive gesture. "Hey! I was just trying to cheer her up. After all, as far as she knows, one of you has moved to God-knows-where and the other just completely disappeared off the face of the Earth."

"I get that. And, maybe, sooner rather than later I can surprise her, but I obviously can't right now."

"And I definitely have to remain hidden alongside Usagi-chan, or else we'll both get in a heap of serious trouble."

Makoto nodded. "Yeah, yeah… that much I definitely understand. Saying that, I'm really amazed by how good your disguises are. If I didn't already know what to look for I wouldn't have been able to find you."

A mischievous smirk leapt upon Usagi's lips. "You have the Disguise Pen to thank for that." That wry grin was swiftly replaced by a sharp wince, a move that surprised and worried both Ami and Makoto. "However, I can't wait to get into the room—or at least eat something—as I don't know if I can keep this up for much longer."

Makoto stared at Usagi with wide eyes. "I had no idea using the Pen was so hard on you."

"Both of us used the Pen." Ami turned an utterly rueful look to Usagi. "But, I didn't know until just now that it was your magic that was providing my disguise. I figured I would have been contributing my own magic."

Usagi's warm and reassuring smile quickly eviscerated Ami's glum mood. "Don't worry about it, Ami-chan. I didn't want you trying to use the same costume that you used earlier lest Motoki-kun finds out that it's you." Her smile morphed into one that was more teasing. "But, to be honest, those glasses looked really cute on you."

"T-thanks." She could feel the heat on her cheeks but could only imagine how red they were. "I only wish I hadn't accidentally run into Motoki-kun. I hated every second of pretending to be a mute, because it's very difficult not to speak when you really want to."

"I hear that."

Makoto nodded and was about to expound on that thought when she saw Unazuki approach their table. The angle taken by the waitress meant she was the only one of the trio who had noticed the young woman. She lightly tapped Usagi's shoe, grabbing the girl's attention, and subtly placed a finger to her lips. Fortunately, her unspoken message was simple enough to be readily comprehended.

"And here you go you. One delicious strawberry and banana ice cream sundae. If there's anything else you want, don't hesitate to let me know. Enjoy!" Unazuki turned to Makoto and gave her a friendly wave before retreating to attend to other customers.

"Let's hurry up and finish these before I pass out." Though Usagi's intent was one of absolute seriousness, her jovial wink and outstretched tongue worked to put her friends at ease.

—|1|**2**|3|4|5|—

"Okay, that was a lot more fun than I expected." Makoto bent down into a crouch and breathed heavily in an attempt to catch her breath. "Having said that, I hope I never have to fight anything that moves that damned fast ever again."

Ami did not hear the lightning senshi's complaints, as she was too enthralled with her immense joy to notice. "I finally did it," she whispered.

"Way to go, Ami-chan!" Usagi enveloped her friend from behind in a tight hug, the surprise of which caused the girl to jump. "Now you can't say you're completely useless as a fighter since you've killed an enemy by yourself."

"Thanks, Usagi-chan!" Ami's smile gradually fell from her lips as she fell into a more pensive mood. "However, I wonder if I can do the same thing when I have to go against something much more difficult than Darangel."

"I'm sure you'll figure out a way. You're way too smart not to, and I believe in you all the same."

"Are you two ready for the next round, or do you need a bit more time to rest?" Luna asked.

Makoto rose to her feet and donned an expression of confidence that belied her mounting fatigue. "I don't mind going again. Besides, we're not always going to have an opportunity to relax in the middle of an actual fight."

"Putting it that way, you make perfect sense," Ami added. Her unsteady voice exposed blatant trepidation despite her attempts to hide it. "Rafki is our next opponent, right?"

Luna nodded. "It's significantly slower than Darangel, but its potent fire attack is not something you want to take for granted. Though, you should fare better against it given your water-based attack."

"I still wouldn't really call what I do an attack," Ami said while looking down at her feet and shrugging.

"Well, it certainly counts as one in my book." Luna then leaped from her seat at the control panel and turned to address Usagi. "You're going to be running the simulation for this round."

"Me?" The blonde's visage twisted into one of outright astonishment and perplexity. "But I've never done anything like that before. Isn't this a little too important to just throw in my lap? Why now?"

"I can't do that and prepare your training session at the same time. Besides, the controls are actually very straightforward."

"So you say…"

Despite her uncertainty, once Usagi actually took a close look at the myriad buttons, knobs, and switches on the control panel, she could see order in the apparent chaos. Almost every switch she would have to press or flip, including the all-important reset button, was placed in a set labeled "Simulation Control." The only thing that was separate was the microphone, and it took her very little time to determine how to operate that device. Her self-assurance skyrocketed once she figured out her job would be far less daunting than she initially feared.

"_This should be a piece of cake,"_ she thought. She then turned toward Makoto and Ami. "Are you two ready?"

"Absolutely," Makoto said while giving Usagi a sharp nod. Ami might have been less enthusiastic about the whole ordeal, but she was no less willing to take on her next opponent. Usagi merely smiled as they turned and walked through the door and into the training room.

—|1|2|**3**|4|5|—

Rafki was proving to be a more formidable foe to Makoto than Darangel ever was. Only once was she provided an opportunity to launch her attack thus far as a near-constant wall of flames had kept her at bay during most of the fight. The winged, beetle-like youma hovered at a distance and seemed to taunt her as any attempt to make the motions necessary to send her bolts of lightning were answered with more fire. She was starting to become extremely frustrated at the whole ordeal.

"_What the hell do I have to do to get an attack in on this thing?"_

She shuffled backward along the hard, barren ground as another ball of red flames approached. Rafki had effectively created a large, arcing inferno that, in conjunction with the edges of the cliff, provided a formidable block against any physical attacks. After that, it could—and did—send wave after wave of flames to disrupt any attempts at counterattacking. Standing still to collect the energy necessary to deploy her lightning was becoming an increasingly bad idea. Fortunately, she was about to be reminded of a way she could counteract her increasingly dire situation.

"Don't forget what you learned earlier, Mako-chan!"

"_That's right,"_ she thought, and at that moment a tiny grin spread across her lips.

She turned and began to run away from the red beetle. For the first time during the battle it began to move as it quickly pursued her, spitting balls of fire in an attempt to corral the brunette. Luckily she was just fast enough to evade the conflagration, which then enabled her to enact her plan. Her antenna was extended the entire time she ran, giving her constant access to the potent electricity that cackled throughout the dark-gray clouds. Suddenly she skidded to a stop and reversed her course, causing the ball of fire that shadowed her to fly over her head and explode along the ground behind her. At the same time she continued to sprint toward the youma while ferociously shouting her incantation. The abruptness of her move bought her enough time to send a beam of green lightning at the monster and land a direct strike on its midsection. Her assault didn't kill the beast but it certainly startled it and allowed her to stand beneath it.

"_Supreme Thunder!_" she yelled yet again and with equal intensity. Her eyes locked onto the bottom of the creature, and she could see that it appeared less armored there than elsewhere on its body.

Though two uses of her attack in quick succession was physically draining, it was exactly what she needed to do in order to see the end of the battle. She raised her hands directly above her head and propelled the lightning that had accumulated on her tiara directly into the youma's unprotected abdomen. From there it did not take much effort on Makoto's part for the beast to explode into a cloud of red dust. Finally, Rafki was no more.

"Congratulations, Mako-chan!" boomed Usagi's happy voice. "I knew you could beat Rafki!"

Makoto bent down and took a few seconds to catch her breath before responding. "Yeah, but it seemed to take _forever_. The damned beetle… thing… whatever just wouldn't stop belching fire at me."

"But aren't you glad it's over now, and that you've managed to beat two enemies in a row by yourself?"

"Yeah, very." She remained hunched over and breathed heavily while she spoke.

"Well, you can relax for a while. You definitely deserved it. When you're ready again, you'll only have two more enemies to fight. Then you're done for the night, and you can come in here and watch me beat up on whatever Luna's throwing at me."

"That sounds nice." Tired as she was, Makoto managed a faint smile.

Usagi's position in the control room hid the much wider grin her lips had formed. She remained silent for a few moments as she continued to gaze at the image of the crouching girl on her monitor.

"Hey, Mako-chan. Did you have any plans for anything after this?"

She took a second to think before shaking her head. "Um… no. Not really."

"Well, in that case you'll be able to join us for dinner tonight."

That statement caused the brunette's eyes to quickly widen as she suddenly felt a curious mixture of nervous glee and outright astonishment. "You— you're inviting me to dinner with you?"

"Why are you so surprised? It's not like it's the first time I've ever invited you to dinner before. Think of it as one more step in returning to normal between us."

Makoto could not help but to smile—and smile with unmitigated radiance at that. "I'll absolutely be there."

Usagi grinned as well. At least that was what she _intended_ to do. Instead she yelped. Loudly. She also unwittingly jerked her entire body straight into the air, stumbling as she nearly missed her seat on the way back down. However, she couldn't really be blamed for acting so strangely. Ear-shattering explosions, especially those of the unexpected variety, tended to do that to a person.

—|1|2|3|**4**|5|—

Rafki's fire did not concern Ami as she easily countered it with her cool bubbles. However, her lack of an offensive capability resulted in her becoming trapped in a stalemate. It was an impasse that slowly was turning toward the enemy's favor as maintaining the shield of bubbles was taxing and a continuous drain on her store of magical energy. If something did not change, and soon, she would lose any sort of safeguard and become a sitting duck to the raging inferno.

"_What can I possibly do to beat this thing?"_ Ami thought while trying her best to maintain her composure, though a sense of panic began to creep into her mind. _"I can't keep this up forever, but it's the only move I have."_

A tremendous spiral of flames suddenly managed to break through the foggy barrier, tearing the girl away from her thoughts and forcing her to dive out of its path. The singeing of her skirt's hem was a timely reminder of the creature's ferocity and the potent attack it possessed. Fortunately it was only training and she had her princess available to terminate the simulation before she became seriously injured. Otherwise, she faced the very real and horrifying prospect of being killed by a youma that was considered one of the easiest she would face in the near future.

She extended her arms and sent forth a stream of bubbles to meet yet another incoming ball of fire, fully intending for it to smother the flames as it had done many times before. Instead, she had to furiously backpedal to avoid being ignited by the blaze. Her magic was weakening faster than expected. Soon, Rafki had the advantage, and it wasted no time in exploiting it by pushing the girl closer and closer to the edge of the ravine. There would have been no hope for Ami if it succeeded at that task, and she was just as painfully aware of that fact as anyone else.

"_Level two and I'm already about to be defeated with ease."_ Another mass of scorching flames prompted her to shuffle backward, and her desperation increased once more. _"I truly must be useless to my princess if this is the case. Beating Darangel must have been pure luck and nothing more."_

The heel of her boot fell against the side of the cliff and at that moment she knew there was no more running away. Her paths forward and side-to-side were blocked by the inferno that surrounded her. She briefly considered jumping, but without her Sabão Spray she would have been an incredibly easy target. There was no way out. She was trapped, and her adversary was moments away from sending forth the finishing blow, a stream of flames so tremendous that surviving it, let alone escaping from it, was nigh impossible. She recognized the futility of shielding herself with her arms, but that didn't stop her from doing it. Interestingly, the thought that the simulation likely should have ended by that point never crossed her mind.

What _did_ cross her mind were the sage words of advice she remembered hearing from her dear friend and princess. Even as the lethal fire quickly bore down upon her, she closed her eyes and began to fervently believe in herself and in her abilities. There was no way she was going to lose. She _had_ to possess a means to truly fight given her position as one of the vaunted senshi, and she had a suspicion that merely tossing bubbles was far from the pinnacle of her strength. All that was required was to discover the extent of her powers. The feeling of warmth intensified as she feverishly probed her subconscious for any answer or even the smallest hint. As she continued to meditate a cold tingling sensation spread through her entire body despite the searing heat that engulfed her, and she could feel water droplets at her fingertips. She knew it wasn't sweat as it felt quite different and was on the outside of her gloves. It was a liquid that clearly could not have originated from the arid landscape, and more importantly it was a sign she had found the solution to both of her problems. Moments later a phrase came into her mind, words that seemed awfully familiar to her despite never having uttered them before.

"_Shine Aqua Illusion!_"

The few drops of water at her hands circled her body and coalesced into a large stream, creating a veritable river that punched through the incoming inferno. An almost deafening roar accompanied the attack and surprised both the target of its fury and its originator. Not only was the ice-cold torrent loud but it was incredibly swift as it had found and overwhelmed the youma within the blink of an eye. It struck the beast with such immense force that it immediately burst into a cloud of frozen dust. Never before had the girl released such a potent assault upon anything. The sheer awesomeness of it all left her motionless and staring wide-eyed into space for several seconds.

"Ami-chan…" Usagi uttered with equivalent astonishment. She was completely oblivious to the scene, her attention wrested away from her conversation with Makoto and to the battle by the massive rumble.

"I did it," Ami whispered.

"Yes, you did. I'm so proud of you. That's two enemies in a row you defeated by yourself."

Ami slowly shook her head and allowed a small grin to tug at her lips. "I mean, I finally have an attack. An _actual attack_. I truly am a warrior now." She then collapsed to her knees and almost fell flat onto her face.

"Ami-chan!"

"She must be truly exhausted," Luna said, in the process startling the blonde as she thought her advisor was still busy constructing the special stage for her upcoming battle. "I doubt she has ever used that much magical energy before. Nor has Makoto for that matter."

"Do you think I should call off their training for the night?"

"Unless you intend to torture them, I would highly suggest it." She dutifully ignored her princess's irate glare. "Anyway, I'm all done creating the environment and enemies you will have to face for your part of the training."

"I can't wait to see what you came up with." A hint of a smirk toyed with Usagi's lips.

"Please keep in mind that I designed this stage to be even more difficult than what you described in your last battle with Beryl."

"I'll be fine."

The feline gave a curt nod before turning to the microphone to call the other girls into the control room. They were deservedly done for the night after performing such strenuous work. Those exhausted fighters would become mere spectators to Usagi's battle, and they would have a front row seat to one of the most spectacular confrontations they had ever witnessed.

—|1|2|3|4|**5**|—

Usagi slowly shifted her gaze as she warily inspected the environment from her elevated perch. It was a setting very unlike those used in previous battles. Those fights occurred in wide open locales such as grassy fields and frozen lakes, with the occasional rocky hill serving as an interlude to the monotony of the empty space. Only during her meeting with Malanche did she encounter a setting that approximated the density of buildings that she currently witnessed in her urban milieu. Even then, it was not nearly as crowded as the ancient Moon Palace was fairly expansive. Furthermore, that conflict only involved two combatants. This one contained multiple enemies of unknown identity and capability, and it was her task to defeat all of them without allowing injury to any of the civilians that swarmed along the streets below her. As an additional test—though fortunately not a mandatory condition set by Luna given its near-impossibility—she was to not draw any attention to herself or to the fighting.

"_Okay… where are you guys? You can't hide forever."_ She closed her eyes and slipped into a deep spell of concentration, her body emitting a faint pink glow in the process.

Unfortunately her answer appeared sooner than she expected or honestly desired. Her eyes flew open just in time to barely see a massive black object fly right past her. From that fleeting glance she guessed the thing was the youma she hunted. She could easily surmise, despite it being twice her size, that it glided through the air much faster than she could ever run or leap. She swiveled around to detect the monster once more, but that meant she had to stare into the bright mid-evening sun. The blinding rays were a formidable opponent, and feverish squinting could not help her to see anything that resembled that beast.

Maybe it was just as well she was completely unaware of the youma diving at her from above. Not even her innate ability to sense dark energy could have provided her any advance warning when that hideous bird-like creature grasped her within one of its razor-sharp talons and snatched her from the tower. She initially struggled to free herself but quickly put to rest that idea when she realized she was floating high over the city. Besides, the youma was just as willing to release her anyway—but only after it had climbed high enough into the sky that even the skyscrapers appeared to be no larger than matchsticks.

"What the _hell_!" she exclaimed as it dropped her from an altitude typically inhabited only by passenger aircraft.

The Moon Stick reflexively appeared in her hand, but she had no immediate idea of what to actually do with it. She could not attack the unknown monster as it had long since disappeared from her vision. Using the force of her attack to slow her descent much like Ami had done to rapidly slide down the hill during her initial stage of training not only was foolish but would place anyone in its path in mortal danger. That, and there was no guarantee that it would even work as she continued to fall at such an extreme rate. Her only respite was that, thanks to terminal velocity, she had almost a minute and a half to figure out what to do before she became intimately acquainted with terra firma. All she had to do was try to calm down and think rationally, a difficult task when she faced an almost certain death.

The normally gold crescent emitted a brilliant white light several seconds later. Usagi noticed it and for a moment was perplexed by its involuntary action. However, the longer she gazed at the dazzling glow the more tranquil she became. Soon she could understand what it was trying to do, and furthermore she recognized that it would not complete that task without her help. She took a deep breath before firmly grasping the Moon Stick with her other hand and staring intently at the Silver Crystal lodged at its base.

"_I certainly hope this works,"_ she thought as she slowly exhaled the air and closed her eyes.

A pink light encapsulated her body as she focused on completing her solitary goal and soon merged with the white luminescence from the Moon Stick. She could feel a gentle force act against her body, pushing it upward to counteract gravity's ubiquitous pull. The taller buildings gradually came into focus as the rate of her descent continued to decrease to the point where it almost felt as though she were levitating. She was not—no senshi could, sadly—but it was difficult to tell the difference. Nevertheless she was no longer in danger of an early demise or defeat at the wings of that dreadful youma.

As she slowly fell to earth she scanned the landscape below for a good place to land. She preferred one that was as far away from civilians as possible. It was just her luck that she found a nice open space that appeared to be a park, and all she had to do was figure out how to shift her body so that she moved in its direction. Unfortunately, it was also her misfortune that the youma that had dropped her had a completely different idea for her fate. It dashed from the sky and rammed her square in the middle of her back before doing its best to drive her into the ground.

"Oh, I don't think so!"

She attempted to counter the efforts of the youma by concentrating even harder on stopping her fall. It was to no avail, however, and she continued to see the city streets approach with terrifying swiftness. That was when an idea sprang into the frustrated blonde's mind, one born from her desperation and fury. She stopped putting energy into slowing her descent and twisted her body as quickly as she could so that she faced the winged beast.

"Moon Twilight Flash!"

Strangely, instead of immediately destroying the monster, the white balls of pure energy merely caused it to stop pressing down onto her and fall away. She could tell that far greater energy would be necessary to defeat it outright. She briefly frowned at that thought before remembering that a painful impact with the ground was only seconds away. The pink and white radiance surrounded her once again, just in time to produce a collision with the concrete that did not instantly kill her. However, her secondary goal of not attracting attention to herself was eviscerated by the crowd of dismayed onlookers who gathered around the small crater and gawked at the weirdly dressed girl lying within. A far greater crash shortly thereafter captured their attention and allowed her to lift herself to crawl out of the middle of the boulevard without further detection.

"Ow," she muttered as she tenderly rubbed her sore backside. She was extremely lucky that was the extent of the damage to her from the fall.

A chorus of horrified shouts and screams quickly reminded her of the primary goal, and she dashed out of the alley to see a blindingly bright radiance of yellow and red erupt from the place where the monster had fallen. The terrified mob attempted to flee from the creature that had arisen from the crater and as a result they completely ignored her. She leaped to the top of a nearby building to avoid being trampled and to gain a better view of her enemy. When the light diminished she could see that it no longer took the appearance of an enormous bird but was more humanoid in stature. It still was twice as tall as the unfortunate people still within range of its long arms, appendages that in essence were more akin to long blades. Its body retained the red coloring that had adorned its chest, but the rest of its body adopted a dark-blue hue save for the silver of its arms and black of its long and unruly hair.

"Sailor Moon! Show yourself now! The blood of these feeble souls is on your hands if you don't!"

Usagi shuddered for a moment at the recognition of her identity by the creature that had nearly killed her. Unlike any of the previous simulations, it seemed to have a perfectly clear idea of who she was. Whether or not they were real victims, however, she was not about to let that thing harm the people it had taken hostage. She boldly jumped from the rooftop and sprinted toward the youma, glaring fiercely at her opponent.

"What does an ugly thing like you want with me?"

"Oh, you should know by now that such language can only serve to get people killed." It raised one of its sharpened arms and prepared to bring it down upon a woman that was trapped beneath its foot.

Usagi withdrew her Moon Stick and pointed it at the youma. "Don't you dare!"

"It's a pity you're already too late, and I'm not even talking about your pathetic attempt to stop me." It took a step back, removing her foot from the startled woman while simultaneously dropping its blade.

"Moon Twilight Flash!" Usagi yelled in panic. The white-hot spheres of energy slammed into the being just in time, knocking it far away from its intended victim. Skillfully seizing the advantage, she sent another such attack at the wobbling beast, one that brought it to the precipice of death. She grabbed her tiara and charged it in anticipation of finishing off that vile youma.

"Don't think you're going to be able to stop my brethren in time just because you've defeated me," it hoarsely whispered. "In fact, you may already be too late to save everyone."

"No, you're wrong." Her resolve was nothing short of fearsome. "I _will_ save everyone, and unfortunately for your friends, _they_ won't be able to stop _me_." On that stanch note she tossed the pink and white disk at the prone youma, causing it to explode into a fine, sand-colored dust upon impact.

Any smug reaction the girl might have voiced was preempted by a pair of explosions that occurred in the distance. Essentially they were on the opposite side of the city-like environment from where she was, and to make matters worse the two blasts were as far apart from each other as possible. One was northwest of her, the other southwest, while she was stuck almost as far to the east as she could travel. She briefly closed her eyes and contemplated her response before jumping to a nearby rooftop and racing as quickly as her legs could take her to the southwest, leaving behind an astonished and eternally grateful woman in her wake.

"_I hope I made the right move."_

A few minutes later she arrived at the source of the explosion and found a ghastly scene that made her stomach turn. There was a large depression in the middle of an intersection around which rested several wrecked and flaming automobiles. Broken glass littered the ground, detritus that clearly had fallen from the surrounding skyscrapers when the blast occurred. None of the destruction to mere property mattered to her, however. What nauseated her was the obvious and horrific toll that attack had taken on the people who stumbled aimlessly about the nearby streets. Some were quite bloodied and were displaying other palpable signs of injury, probably from the explosion itself or the confusion in its aftermath. Others were more fortunate to not be wounded but were still meandering around in a zombie-like state, completely oblivious to anything happening around them. It caused the girl to freeze in her tracks and stare at the devastation with a visage expressing utmost dismay.

"Sailor Moon, you may have gotten lucky in not falling for our feint, but I can assure you that this will be the end of your attempt at stopping us," angrily sounded a raspy voice from a position closer to the blonde than she expected.

Usagi swiveled on her heels and came face-to-face with an older woman who looked remarkably like her mother save for glossy black eyes replacing sepia and much paler skin. At the same time she felt a tremendous surge of negative energy emanate from that being. A part of her mind briefly wondered how that person could have snuck up behind her without her feeling such an intense and obvious dark aura. It soon gave up that inquiry and joined the remainder of her consciousness in its attempt to suppress a curious surge of fear and confront the evil that she assumed was the cause of the surrounding populace's strange behavior.

"On the contrary. I will defeat you and undo whatever it is that you did to everyone." Her eyes narrowed to deliver a ferocious glare.

The woman contemptuously snorted. "I'd like to see that. No… I'd _really_ like to see that." She lifted a hand and summoned within it a long obsidian rod topped by a gold sphere. "If you survive this fight then I'll reconsider my opinion of you as a sad and pathetic excuse for a warrior. However, I strongly doubt that will be the case, and I will greatly enjoy viewing your death."

In response, Usagi took a step back and raised her Moon Stick and prepared to send out a devastating blast of magical energy at the vile woman. It was a move that only drew a derisive laugh from her adversary.

"Do you really think that toy is going to help you?"

"You'll be surprised at how powerful my so-called 'toy' can be." She then yelled the incantation of her most powerful attack.

The entirety of the woman's staff turned pale silver the moment the first white ball of energy leaped from Usagi's wand and its orb emitted a brilliant blue light that nearly blinded the girl. It allowed her to achieve something that every other opponent the senshi and princess had faced could only dream about: the complete nullification of her assault.

"As I said, a toy." A smirk slithered across her lips.

"_Um… What do I do now?"_ She frantically backed away from her formidable foe. _"I could try charging my attack, but I doubt that's going to make much of a difference against someone like her. My tiara probably is just as worthless."_

She felt something collide with her back, and as she turned around her eyes caught the sight of a young boy who was no older than her brother. He clearly was one of the victims of the bizarre incident as he didn't even acknowledge that he had seen her, let alone that he had run right into her. He merely turned away and continued to meander along the sidewalk. However, after taking a few paces he collapsed to his knees and was close to falling face first onto the concrete. Usagi shrieked loudly before rushing to his side and grabbing him before his head smacked the pavement. She had gently laid the child onto his back when she once again heard her enemy's arrogant voice.

"Don't you think you should be paying attention to me and not to some random kid?"

As though to prove her point she extended her staff toward the blonde and fired several red energy balls that bounced along the ground toward the crouching girl. Right before they struck her they jumped into the air and exploded with devastating force. Usagi's shield managed to deploy just in time to protect both her and the boy, but she was knocked about twenty feet backward in the process. It reminded her of the first battle with Kunzite, a strange thing given that the shield had blocked an attack from the far more powerful Beryl without her budging an inch. That was not an experience she wanted to repeat, especially when caring for an innocent young victim of the woman's wickedness. The pure ferocity of the assault startled her as much as it angered her as she knew the attack might have injured her but it absolutely would have obliterated the poor child.

"Well?" The look on the woman's face revealed blatant scorn as she launched another salvo.

Usagi turned and raised her Moon Stick, though not for the purpose of creating that valuable shield. Instead she released her ultimate attack, directing the white balls of energy to intercept their red counterparts. The collision of the negating forces produced a massive explosion that knocked her opponent off her feet. However, before she could seize that fleeting advantage that blatantly evil woman stood up and sneered at her.

"You were extremely fortunate that one time, but I would suggest not relying solely on luck to defeat me."

"I don't need luck to beat you."

That last remark was designed more to motivate herself than to invoke fear within her enemy's mind. As she stared at the somewhat tall but otherwise not very imposing woman she attempted to design a strategy for actually landing an attack upon her. That one counterstrike was the closest she had come to hitting the woman with anything of significant strength. Furthermore, she knew time was of the essence as she noticed that more of the surrounding civilians were collapsing and falling into states of near-unconsciousness. At that point she fully comprehended the truth of Luna's instructions. In a way she had already failed at that primary task, but she knew the only way to save them was to defeat that woman. The only question at that point was how to accomplish the goal.

Another series of explosive red balls were fired at Usagi, and just as before she caused their early detonation with a well-timed application of Moon Twilight Flash. The spheres were larger and greater in number, resulting in an even greater explosion, one that knocked both combatants backwards a fair distance though her shield once again protected her. However, that painful experience allowed her to stumble upon an important revelation. Her mind formulated an idea for how to defeat the woman that was guaranteed to work to perfection—or kill her outright.

That explained Usagi's otherwise-insane decision to sprint at the woman, ideally before that wicked being could unleash yet another strike. The sheer audacity of the move stunned her enemy just long enough for her to leap into the air with the intent to knock the rod from her hands. Not to be outdone, the woman returned from her stupor with astonishing quickness and fired her attack at the descending senshi. Unfortunately for that evil lady, she failed to adequately judge the rapidly closing distance between her own position and that of her target. The exploding balls practically were right above her head when they detonated upon impact with Usagi's involuntarily generated energy shield.

"_Ugh… that wasn't quite what I expected to happen."_

Usagi's thought was dour but appropriate. She slowly crawled to her feet, wincing in pain as she knocked a coating of light-gray dust and larger particles from her skirt. The blast had launched her dozens of feet upward and just as far sideways, with her ride stopping only upon her collision with the concrete outer wall of a nearby building. However, her mood swiftly improved when she noticed the broken state of her foe. She could not help but to grin.

The woman slumped in a heap on the other side of the intersection, and it was obvious she was not about to begin moving anytime soon. Her staff was dislodged from her hands and rested in another corner of the junction. Its color was a very pale white, meaning it still contained a significant amount of energy, but a clear shift in its hue had already started. Only a few seconds had elapsed when it turned light gray, and with that a few of the people who were completely knocked out were starting to stir. Usagi breathed a tremendous sigh of relief at that fact, as it also meant she no longer had to find a way to restore the vivacity of a large crowd of people. Maybe she could have done it if she used the Silver Crystal, but with about fifty people within her field of vision and many others she could not see the expenditure of power most certainly would have killed her. Nonetheless, the only thing that concerned her at that juncture was finishing off that depraved woman.

She warily approached the woman's horribly battered figure, searching for any signs of a deception. A few more seconds of staring brought a striking realization, forcing her to freeze in her tracks. The deep breath she had held loudly passed by her lips as she raised her Moon Stick. There was only one correct answer, and making the wrong choice would have been absolutely devastating. Yet, it took her no time to determine which incantation to shout.

"Moon Healing Escalation!"

The pink orbs raced into the prone woman's body. Within seconds a resplendent white aura had surrounded her, followed by the transformation of her eyes to a calmer light blue.

"Congratulations, Usagi!" Luna's cheerful voice seemed to boom across the sky. "You made the correct decision, and as a result you successfully accomplished the main goals for this training stage."

"Thanks, Luna." She beamed with satisfaction and her eyes shone with incredible brightness. The door appeared behind her and she turned and walked through, flipping the nearby switch beforehand as usual.

Makoto was the first to greet Usagi once she returned to the control room, and she did so while sporting a tremendous grin. "That was amazing!"

"I knew you were able to fight extremely well, but that just exceeded my every expectation," Ami added, her disposition almost identical to Makoto's.

Usagi shrugged nonchalantly, though she did not hesitate to smile as well at the praise. "It's just that I had a lot more time to practice than you two. A few more days training here and you'll be much better than me in no time."

Makoto shook her head and smiled. "Somehow I doubt that. You're our leader, after all."

"Actually, Aino-san officially is the leader of the senshi as Sailor Venus," Usagi said. "I was never supposed to be a senshi, only Princess Serenity."

"Hmm… I see." The brunette nodded in understanding of the second part of Usagi's statement before abruptly joining Ami in visibly cringing at the first. "I'm glad _I_ wasn't so stupid."

"What?" Usagi's innocent question was punctuated by a stare of outright confusion. It took her a few moments to fully understand their dismay, after which time her expressions hardened. "Oh. Well, let's just say that I don't like the girl very much right now—either one of them, to be honest. But, that's a topic for another time, and I don't want to talk about them right now." She turned toward the door. "We should go."

Usagi opened the door and walked through. Makoto started to follow, but a light tug on her arm by Ami prompted her to stop.

"Before you go, I should give you this." In her other hand was a communicator similar to Usagi's but light green in color.

"I know you had to make a new communicator for Usagi-chan, but I already have one."

"Not like this, you don't. Now, I'll need your old device since it's no longer very useful."

Makoto sighed and reached into her pocket. As she handed the older communicator to Ami she asked, "What's so special about the new one?"

A giggle preceded the wry smirk that spread across Ami's lips. "I'll tell you later. We don't need your jaw dragging along the ground all the way home. Anyway, Usagi-chan's waiting on us."

The taller girl could do nothing but shrug and wonder what all of that was about as she followed her strangely secretive friend back into the arcade.

_Originally published April 27, 2013._

_Modified chapter published June 6, 2013._


	7. Heating Up

**7 | Heating Up**

Another woman sat on her elevated perch at the same time the warrior of love and justice was caught up in her tremendous, though completely simulated, battle. Granted, Sazaratha did not have the altitude that her nemesis enjoyed, but that deficit came with the joy of not having to worry with stress—not that kind of stress, at least. The utter darkness of the early morning engendered a rare peaceful mood within her, one further appreciated due to the lack of a moon in an overcast sky. She always hated that silvery light for a multitude of reasons, with her present troubles being only the tip of the iceberg. In any case, she spent a moment of precious free time to sit and contemplate her future plans.

"Hey! What the hell? Who are you and what're you doing on my roof?"

The colossal tremor that shot through her entire body revealed volumes about how much she anticipated just such a circumstance. After several tense moments and a few raucous deep breaths, she shifted to her knees and bent her head over the edge of the gray tiles. Gravity pulled her blond hair across her eyes as they locked onto the green counterparts of an older woman. That person was almost sixty years old, she assumed, and was either the owner of the house or someone related to him or her. What was blatantly obvious to her was the woman's palpable irritation. In the end, all of that was irrelevant compared to the fact she was spotted. However, she had a plan to deal with that nuisance. It was not the best plan she could construct on the spur of the moment, but it had to do. She mentally cursed herself while plastering a sickly sweet smile onto her face.

"I'm sorry for disturbing you, ma'am. You haven't seen any strange people running around here, have you?"

"That has nothing to do with you being on my roof and causing a ruckus." The woman's already stern visage seemed to become even harsher. "Now, tell me who you are already before I call the cops to drag your butt down from there."

An exasperated Sazaratha pulled herself upright so she could both empty the blood that had rushed to her head and sigh loudly in frustration. She ensured her annoyance was well hidden as she addressed the woman once again.

"Okay, okay. No need to get violent. I'll leave your roof if you promise to answer a few simple questions for me. It's very important for an ongoing investigation I'm conducting."

"Investigation my ass. I know you're not from the police." She began to leave the windowsill, and Sazaratha could barely hear a reference to something about a shotgun as the woman departed.

"Well, that went splendidly." The blonde righted herself and sat on the roof, idly staring off into the distance while running a hand through her hair to partially untangle it. She then smirked as a tiny spark of flame ignited between the fingers of that same hand. "Well, it looks like I'll have to do Plan B after all. Sucks to be her."

The old woman knew nothing of that plan when she jogged out of her bedroom and into a nearby closet. Inside was her trusty old pal, a twin-barreled shotgun that she normally used for hunting and protecting her property. It was that second task that she had set her mind to when she grabbed a box of twelve-gauge shells and expertly slid one into each barrel. It only took her a few seconds to complete that action, after which she ran down the stairs. However, she did not get much farther than her living room. She felt her heart leap straight into her throat when she saw the rooftop intruder out of the corner of her eye. That younger woman's casual pose as she sat on the sofa, with her arms spread out and her legs loosely crossed in front of her, was something she found very off-putting. How she ever managed to break into her house without detection, or without even opening the locked front door, added to her perturbation. But, that did not stop her from rounding about and aiming the muzzle of the shotgun squarely at the blonde's chest.

"That looks like a really nice shotgun. I've seen one of those before." Sazaratha gave the woman a mischievous grin. "I'll tell you what. Since you don't seem to be in the mood to answer any of my questions right now, I'll give you a free shot at me. But, I warn—"

Not in the mood to answer questions was a vast understatement. The woman did not even let Sazaratha finish her wry statement before pulling the trigger. A sharp blast assaulted her ears, ones accustomed to hearing the explosion of such a weapon through earmuffs. She lurched backward, a result that was the combination of the shotgun's recoil and the disorientation brought on by the sound pressure. The bright yellow light that flashed before her eyes added to her momentary misery. It only took her a few seconds to recover, but in those few seconds she realized she had placed a sizeable hole within what used to be a perfectly good sofa. At the same time, as she stared at the mangled white strands of urethane and polyester that littered her floor, she felt that very same heart sink deep into the pit of her stomach.

"I'm sorry." Her voice was more mocking than remorseful as Sazaratha wrapped one arm around the woman's waist and the other around her neck. She felt her prey squirming and straining to escape her grasp, but she knew the effort would have been futile. Her lips hovered barely an inch from the woman's ear, which made her whisper sound all the more threatening. "I guess I won't be hearing any answers to my questions from you. So sad."

A few minutes later, Sazaratha emerged from the basement, nonchalantly shrugging as she crossed the threshold into the kitchen. Indubitably, her partner did not join her.

"Well, that's not the best way to begin, but that idiot woman had to be a complete pain in the ass. Thankfully the old hag was a widow, as I don't want to create too much noise here."

She carelessly plopped onto the remains of the sofa and unhurriedly gazed at the fixtures that surrounded her. Despite her half-hearted attempt to drag the process out, it only took her a minute to fully investigate the living room and some of the chambers directly adjoining it.

"Eh, it's not much. In fact, it's utter shit. But it'll have to do. And it's somewhere that fake queen will never suspect I've gone, which is perfect as far as I'm concerned." A light sigh preceded the smirk that twisted her lips as she pushed her body up from the sofa. "Oh well. I guess I'd better hurry up and do what I need to do here, because I don't want to be late for my next engagement. I do hope that our dear Sailor Mercury doesn't mind a bit of unannounced company."

—|1|**2**|3|—

The sun was on the precipice of sliding under the horizon, but there was still more than enough light to see without the aid of the streetlamps. The park in Katsushika, the largest in the twenty-three special wards of Tokyo prefecture, was still quite inhabited despite the late hour. Among the patrons were two men who stood near the tree line and watched a pick-up football game play out on a makeshift pitch. One of the men, a rather average-looking individual with blond hair, smiled as he saw one of the competitors dance past a defender and kick the ball past the goalkeeper and into the back of the net. He clapped in the same way that the small audience closer to the pitch did upon noticing the goal, though his motivations were very, very different. That fact was noted by the man standing next to him, a slightly-taller person with black hair and a heavier, more-athletic build.

"It was that good, eh? Or, is it more the case you're just happy everything's going according to plan so far?"

A grin tugged at the other man's lips. "Both. Though, I was never really a fan of the sport, which is understandable given the fact that I never had any time to partake in it."

"When do we ever?" His chuckling would have sounded strange to any bystanders given his deep baritone, but there were none within earshot. "Anyway, I have to wonder how much energy we could obtain from this scheme. I mean, if anything were to happen to either the ball or the so-called ref, then a full twenty percent of our scheme just collapses into shambles."

"I understand that, but it's your job to make sure that doesn't happen." His smile disappeared as the blond-haired man, Jadeite, turned to face his companion. "Now, so long as the senshi don't find out about this then things should be fine for you."

That companion, Major Grayson, slowly nodded. "True. And, I don't mean to suggest a lack of trust in Rocha's plan, especially since I signed off on it. It's just, seeing it in person, it's a little unnerving. Besides, the senshi aren't even the sole problem this particular part of the plan might face. What if someone steals the ball or the youma somehow loses it? I'm not saying it's going to happen, but it might."

"Those are valid concerns, but they also have easy solutions. It's not very difficult to find a new ball, even if we do have to sacrifice a day's worth of energy gathering."

"I suppose you're right about that."

Jadeite turned away from Grayson and from the ongoing game and started a slow walk along the path leading to one of the park's exits. "Anyway, we should return home," he said as he departed, prompting his subordinate to follow him.

For them, home was a pair of rather tiny two-story houses in Adachi that sat immediately adjacent to one another. Even then, that was not nearly enough space for the group that was stationed there. It might have been sufficient if the eight officers were the only personnel necessary to run the operation, but each had underlings who also required housing. Those unfortunate people, which numbered a few dozen in total, had to occupy rooms in nearby hotels. The task of ensuring that the disparate groups efficiently traveled from one place to another nearly sent Captain Maldonado into a conniption fit. Nevertheless, it was all they could obtain in the short amount of time they were there, though they had plans for more expansive accommodations in the near future.

Along the way, Grayson held his stomach with one hand after hearing it grumble. "I guess I'm getting a bit hungry after all. I hope you don't mind if we stopped over at a nearby restaurant to get something to eat."

"I'm not really in the mood to eat anything right now, but you can go on ahead if you'd like." Jadeite expelled a soft sigh with a slow shake of his head. "I'll probably just head back to main camp instead and catch a nap before getting something to eat there."

"With all due respect, sir, I'm worried about your sudden lack of energy. You weren't anything like this a few days ago."

"You're not the only one who's told me that, but I assure you I'm perfectly fine." His eyes narrowed as he began to glare at Grayson, his irritation starting to get the better of him. "Now, you should probably go eat before you end up lacking any energy."

"Yes sir."

He opened his mouth to say something else, but the intensity of his superior's glower forced him to change his mind. Instead, he merely nodded before turning off on one of the side streets. He figured Jadeite could easily take care of himself, occasional bouts of fatigue and all.

Though he had never before visited the place in person, he knew the path he took lead to a small restaurant there. Prior investigation of the place revealed that it mainly served noodles, though other types of traditional Japanese food was served there as well. He was not a connoisseur of that style of cuisine, and in fact he had never eaten any such thing in his life, but his curiosity drove him to at least have a go at trying some. Besides, it only made sense if he was going to be staying there for months on end.

It only took him a few minutes to arrive at the restaurant, at which point in time he was nearly barreled over by another patron of the establishment. He pushed himself upright and was about to complain loudly when he saw who the perpetrator was. There were two benefits to his predicament. The first was that the person was nice enough to stop and apologize for knocking him over. That alone might have been good enough, but his mind blatantly ignored that fact. Instead, it proceeded directly to the second good thing, which was the fact that the person who had run into him was a woman, and a fairly attractive one at that.

"Oops. I'm so sorry for knocking you over." She extended a hand to help him regain his balance, which he took eagerly. "I don't often run into people like that, but I've had quite a busy day and I didn't see you there until it was too late."

"Believe me when I say that I truly don't mind." He turned a friendly smile to her, one that was only partially reciprocated. "It's actually a good thing you've run into me."

Whatever grin her lips held at the time swiftly faded, and her sudden intense stare, along with her act of snatching her arm away from his grasp, momentarily caught the man off guard. "Really? This had better not be the start of some lame pick-up line, as I'm seriously not in the mood."

"It's nothing like that," he said, shaking his head emphatically.

"That's good to hear." Strangely, she smiled again, and the fact it was at full force only further confused Grayson. "So, I imagine the reason for your presence here is something more mundane."

"Well… eating is a mundane act, if that's what you mean." His shrug punctuated his nervously-delivered words.

The woman nodded. "Indeed. Fortunately, you've come to a fairly decent place to do just that." She turned toward the door and was about to pull it open, but was surprised to see him already reaching for the handle.

"No, allow me."

"Thank you, but I can assure you I'm more than capable of opening doors myself." Nevertheless, she did not hesitate to walk through the entrance, with a perplexed and upset Grayson following close behind.

"I'm fully aware of that." He clenched his hands into fists as he stared at the back of the woman he found both alluring and inscrutable. "I was just being a good gentleman."

"And, I fully appreciate it. Honestly, I do. Chivalry is a dying art in this day and age." She stopped just before the hostess and turned to face him, her fierce gaze conveying absolute seriousness. "But, at the same time, maybe it deserves to disappear as it's clearly outlived its usefulness."

All he could do was shake his head in defeat. "I-I'll keep that in mind."

She turned away and approached the hostess. The smell of the food being cooked was delicious and the ambiance was inviting, but he had second thoughts. Maybe he would revisit the place under less stressful circumstances. The woman he had just met certainly was beautiful, but his initial interaction with her had unnerved him, to say the least. Because of that, he quickly surmised the chance that she would accept dining with him to be approximately zero.

"Are you just going to stand there, or are you going to come along and join me at our table?"

No matter how casually he tried to act in walking behind the woman, he knew full well that she recognized his initial stupor and subsequent shock. It had to be expected given everything that had transpired beforehand. She seemed to take it all in stride.

"Now, I'm sure this is your first time here, but the food here is really good."

Grayson nodded in amazement. "How could you guess?"

"Just call it intuition." She covered her mouth with one hand to stifle her giggles as she grabbed the menu with her other hand. "Also, it's the fact you're clearly not from here. You certainly don't look Japanese, and your speech seems to carry quite the American accent."

"That's because I am American." He looked askance as he spoke, but despite his concerns and his lack of preparation for such a scenario, his words were not false.

The woman exhaled a weary sigh. "It's a very interesting country that I would like to visit again if I had the free time. The problem is that I don't see myself having such a luxury in the near future."

"I'm sorry to hear that." The low tenor of his voice expressed sympathy. "I assume it is your work that keeps you so busy."

"It's not the worst thing in the world as I absolutely love my profession, but breaks are few and far between."

"What is it that you do?"

She shook her head in apparent disappointment and hesitated for a few seconds before finally giving him an answer. "I'm sorry, I probably should have introduced myself earlier if I was going to talk so much about myself." A nod of her head and a genuine smile substituted for a more formal bow, but she figured he would not mind. "My name is Meiou Setsuna, and I'm a doctor at a nearby hospital."

He finally found an opportunity to smile at her since the incident at the door, and he took full advantage of it. "I'm very pleased to meet you, Meiou-sensei. You can call me Grayson."

"Just Grayson?" One of her eyebrows lifted as her confusion became quite evident.

"Everyone I know and associate with calls me by that name."

"What about your family? Your parents had to have given you another name besides Grayson."

He froze stiff at the mention of family. As far as he knew, his brethren within the Dark Kingdom were his family, though he also was vaguely aware that he had a life before his recruitment by them. The problem was that he didn't remember much of it. He could not recall what his mother or father looked like, or if he had any brothers or sisters. For much of his time there he did not need to think about such distractions. His priority was and remained the utmost service of his queen and the resurrection of her rightful kingdom. Yet, that was not to say he did not know the answer to her question.

"Hello?"

"It's Emmanuel. You can imagine why I don't use it a lot."

"Fair enough." She grinned, and it seemed to put him at ease, at least for a short while.

For more than an hour the pair just sat there and talked. Their conversations spanned topics ranging from mundane to wildly esoteric. All the while a pleasant atmosphere remained between them, one that convinced Grayson that maybe he had an honest chance with her. Despite lacking any real time for serious dating given his mission or his impromptu back story of working as a businessman for an international corporation, feelings of optimism swelled within him. It seemed possible she would not oppose seeing him a second time. In fact, she might even want such a thing, given her status as a single woman. The difference in age between them, with Setsuna looking no older than twenty-five while he was in his early forties, did not appear to be a hindrance. Thus, he asked the question on his mind and listened with confidence as she gave her reply.

"I hate to burst your bubble, but I'm not interested in going out with anyone right now." Her tone was moderately compassionate, but not to the extent that he didn't get the hint right away.

"So… um…" Words failed him, and his poise was on the brink of a spectacular collapse. Fortunately, she came to his rescue just in time.

"Don't get me wrong. I'm certain we'll see each other again." She momentarily shifted her gaze away from his and sighed with either trepidation or expectation—he was not entirely sure. However, a playful grin graced her lips when she turned to him once again. "In fact, it'll probably be sooner than you think."

With that parting statement, she pivoted and walked away. Short of him chasing after her, which was an act of desperation he wanted to avoid, she did not give him an opportunity to say goodbye. Instead, he began to stroll in the direction of the house that was both his home and field base for the foreseeable future. It was far from his perfect ending, but he had avoided a much worse fate. That tiny seed of hope buoyed him for the rest of that short journey, and as he walked a single thought passed through his mind:

"_I really do hope so."_

—|1|2|**3**|—

Nobody paid any attention to the woman who stood across the street from the large and stately house. No part of her features or dress appeared out of the ordinary save her pink hair, and even then that was more an oddity than a reason for suspicion. There was no reason for any bystanders to believe she didn't belong there, let alone figure out she truly wasn't the college student she professed to be. Besides, Sazaratha knew that anonymity was essential to the success of her mission, and the only way she could effectively disappear was to be as nondescript as possible. She let her eyes fall to the dainty silver watch that dangled from her left wrist. According to that timepiece it was six-thirty that evening, and the sun was already slipping below the horizon, leaving behind a dark-blue canvas fortunately devoid of clouds.

She searched for any hint of light coming from the windows but found none. It meant that her target likely was away from home for the moment, which was unusual for a Sunday night given the onset of classes the following morning. However, an alternate interpretation, one that was just as valid, was that any light normally emanating from within was blocked by curtains. That would mean she could not passively observe the residence from a distance, which was a small annoyance at best. The woman confidently walked across the street and up the pathway before stopping in front of the main entrance, as if she were preparing to knock on the heavy wooden barrier. However, she had other plans before making her presence obvious. She knew she could detect the energies of the senshi and the princess from a distance, and that was what she attempted to accomplish first as she closed her eyes and slipped into deep concentration.

"_Okay, where are you, you silly little girl? I certainly hope you're home so I can get this done quickly."_

After a few seconds she opened her eyes and shook her head in disappointment. From her vantage point she had failed to perceive any semblance of the girl's aura. Granted, the house was large and solidly constructed, indubitably decreasing the effective range for which she could accurately distinguish Mercury's energy signature. A further complication was that she likely would not be able to sense a normal senshi from any more than ten feet away.

"Dammit," she muttered. "There's no way I'm going to be able to merely sense whether this bitch is at home or not from the outside. I guess I'll just have to go inside and search from there."

That was a task easier said than done, as she presumed the woman would not be enthusiastic about letting in strange visitors. Under normal circumstances she imagined she might have been able to talk her way inside, but the sudden disappearance and reappearance of the woman's daughter ensured that the situation would have been anything but normal. Her option was to employ a more drastic method of entering the house, one that employed a fair amount of shock value when done correctly. Of course, it also was extremely risky to her as it required intimate knowledge of both the inside the house and of her greeting party, neither of which she possessed. A mistake would have been immediately fatal. Nevertheless, she quickly decided to break into the house by teleportation, as overall the odds were on her side.

She stealthily walked around the house and up the curving driveway that terminated at a two-vehicle garage behind the building. It was a far superior location for teleportation as fewer people would notice the bright light that accompanied every act. Her eyes spotted the rear door of the house but she willfully ignored it, determining that she would give away her position by attempting to open a potentially locked door. Instead she decided to peer through the windows for any hints about the home's floor plan and furniture layout. She did not want to teleport into the middle of a wall or a large piece of furniture. The thought of such a consequence momentarily brought her anxious shivers. Luckily there was a gap in the curtains that allowed her to see a large portion of the dining room.

"_Ah ha!"_ A wide grin tugged at her lips with relative ease. _"That is _exactly_ what I'm looking for."_

Within a second she disappeared from the driveway in a ferocious blast of yellow light, only to immediately materialize in the middle of the dining room about twenty feet away from where she once stood. She quickly dropped into a fighting stance, scanning her immediate vicinity for anyone who threatened her. It was a search hampered by the severe lack of light. Yet, that same difficulty also brought about a revelation.

"_Okay… where is everyone?"_ Her eyes widened, as much a result of shock as it was a practical reaction to darkness. _"I would have expected somebody to be home, either Mercury or her mother. This is strange."_

Strange, yet not entirely unexpected. She carried a flashlight for just such an occurrence, and she retrieved that object from her purse. Turning on the lights within the house was not an option to her, at the very least because she had no idea where the switches were located. She moved the faint beam about in a broad circle until she spotted one of the buttons along the wall. She smiled as the room filled with a white light the moment she pressed the button.

"_Hmm. Now I can actually see something."_

She carefully walked through the dining room and into the living room. Again she found nobody inhabiting that room, which was less of a shock to her as anyone within that room would have made their presence known as soon as she turned on the dining room lights.

"_I'm getting this feeling that there's nobody here, at least in this part of the house."_ A pang of disappointment prompted a moment of hesitation, but it was very short-lived. _"However, houses like these typically have bedrooms on the upper levels, so she could be up there, completely oblivious to my presence. She is a busy student after all, and she's probably up their studying hard and paying absolutely no attention to me."_ A wicked smirk came to her lips as she considered that possibility.

She found the stairs leading to the upper floor to her left. Climbing them was out of the question, as only an amateur would do something so foolish. Clearly, teleportation was needed again, though it helped tremendously that she could see exactly where she was going to land. At least, it was where she would land had she not decided to employ yet another of her skills.

The Shitennou had frequently used levitation as a part of their espionage missions. It was how Kunzite was able to learn the identity of the princess, the greatest intelligence-gathering victory the Dark Kingdom had ever achieved. Many of the reconnaissance youmas used levitation in limited scenarios to quickly reach the rooftops of tall buildings or to scan parts of the city from an elevated location. Most of the time levitation was a dangerous maneuver as it required the practitioner to have extremely detailed knowledge of their surroundings in all dimensions. Furthermore, they had to be careful when and where they levitated and the altitudes they attained. However, Sazaratha was going to utilize levitation for a more basic yet tactically smart purpose: footsteps were loud, so she just wasn't going to walk along the floor.

After the typical flash of gold light, she stood at the top step of the staircase and hovered an inch above the hardwood floor. She could see there were four doorways, one right next to the stairs and three others that were attached to the short hallway. The doors to all three rooms were opened, allowing her to see that there was no light emanating through any of the thresholds. It was readily apparent to her that the house was uninhabited, and her immense caution ultimately was unnecessary.

"_So… there's nobody upstairs either? Now I'm really confused as to what's going on here."_

A soft thud emanated from the spot where her feet impacted the floor. Her eyes wandered to the darkened room immediately next to her as she chose that as the first target for investigation. A beam of white from her flashlight led the way as she marched into the chamber. The furniture and decorations adorning the space told her that it was not the room of a fourteen-year-old girl, even for one as mature as Ami. She shook her head and returned to the hallway.

"_This room has to belong to her mother. Drab, sterile, and utterly utilitarian, just like its owner. No wonder her husband divorced her."_

She walked to the next room that joined the hallway, which in this case was the bathroom. It was an American-style bathroom that joined the bath and toilet. It was also empty of anything that usually indicated a person was living there. No soap, toothbrushes, shampoo bottles, or any other toiletries were visible. A quick check of some of the cabinets found them mostly deserted of things a person would frequently use. It was useful information to her, yet at the same time it made Sazaratha quite apprehensive and prompted a frown.

"_It almost looks like they've left on vacation, but it's the end of March."_

The evidence that substantiated her idea came from her check of the next room. That room indeed belonged to the senshi she hunted, and expectedly it was as vacant as the others. Large furniture filled the room such as her bed, dresser, and writing desk, but there were definite signs that objects were removed. Nothing was present on the desk's smooth glass surface despite its typically regular use by the room's former occupant. The bed was made, but the ruffles in the surface of the sheets suggested that a heavy object once was placed there. What provided the bulk of the proof of the girl's long-term absence from the house was the bare closet. There were some random items still hanging on the rod, but there were far more unoccupied hangers than made sense. She darted from the closet to the dresser and opened one of the drawers, only to find it and others completely empty.

"_When the hell did they leave?"_ She almost threw her flashlight to the floor in a fit of rage but caught herself at the last second. _"How could we lose track of one of the senshi as well as the princess? I certainly hope my 'queen' had a youma or two covering the house, or it's going to be a pain in the ass figuring out where she ran off to, especially given who we're talking about."_ Soon her frustration eased ever so slightly as she remembered that she still had a tremendous advantage over the senshi. _"I guess I'll have to refocus my plan on a different one of those morons. It'll take more planning and work than I'd like as they're a lot stronger than Mercury, but I think I can pull it off."_

_Originally published May 25, 2013._

_Modified chapter published June 7, 2013._


	8. Clearing an Infestation

**8 | Clearing an Infestation**

Violet eyes cautiously peered around the corner as anxiety flowed through every vein of their owner. She was utterly certain there was something immensely evil in that very sacred room, but every attempt at obtaining even the smallest glimpse of it ended in outright failure. Her pale skin tingled with both anticipation and fright as she held her breath and inched her head further through the threshold. This time she would succeed in locating the foul being, whatever it was, and either trap or destroy it—whichever fate it ultimately chose. She had an ofuda already in hand and was prepared to toss it at a moment's notice. However, she would not get the opportunity as the second she was able to clearly see the interior of the room the evil sensation disappeared. Strangely, at that same moment the Sacred Fire flared up tremendously before extinguishing itself, leaving nothing behind but darkness and a few warm cinders that clung tenaciously to the kindling.

"_What the hell?"_ Rei's fury grew the longer she stood in the middle of the nearly pitch-black chamber. _"The fire was pretty strong, and then it died just like that. And, whatever was in there with it disappeared at the same time… again."_

She made her best attempt at searching her surroundings for any trace of malevolent energy, but much like her previous tries they only seemed to appear when she wasn't looking for them. Her already high frustration only increased with that latest failure, as did her anger. If there was any solace to be had it was that she knew she was not going insane. Instead, the constant game of cat-and-mouse caused the girl to become extremely suspicious of what was happening within the temple.

"_I know there's something here that doesn't want me finding it. I'm not making this up, as my grandpa also can feel it. My guess is the Dark Kingdom is doing this. They know who I am, but instead of coming after me they're just trying to slowly drive me crazy. What the hell kind of tactic is _that_?"_

She shook her head in disgust, opened her eyes, and stomped out of the murky room, headed for her bedroom so she could don her ceremonial robes once more. It was an early Wednesday morning which meant that it was a school day, the second day into her eighth year. Being late was the last thing on her agenda, but she had to restart the fire before she could leave. The last thing she wanted was to be distracted by whatever creature was messing with her mind, but as long as she was unable to find the abominable thing its unwanted presence would be her sole thought. The cruel games it played with her only worsened since she first detected the negative spiritual energy it intensely yet sporadically emitted two days ago. On the first day that enigmatic being appeared only once and did nothing more than shock and frighten her. The next day it appeared three times before letting her recover from the fright. Both times the psychological assaults occurred early in the day, while she was performing her chores and preparing for school. That she had no sense of what it was that incessantly perturbed her only deepened her fear.

However, instead of being consumed by anxiety, she decided to confront the source of the problem. In her mind she was convinced a youma was at the shrine and was ordered to make miserable the life of the fire senshi. A clear part of that order had to be to flee whenever she was close to spotting the creature, or else she would have trapped the thing with her ofuda and attacked it a long time ago. Instead it kept running away, disappearing to places unknown only to reappear when she dropped her guard and left, slowly building her frustration up to the extremity attained upon knowing she would have to reignite the Sacred Fire.

"_I sincerely hope I can get rid of that annoying thing once and for all,"_ she thought as she purposely strode down the hallway. She did not notice her grandfather running after her until she was about to open the door.

"Rei!" She froze and slowly turned slightly dimmed eyes to him. "I take it you've already noticed that there's an evil presence here."

A frustrated sigh preempted her petulant response. "Not just that, but it managed to put out the Sacred Fire. I was just about to get dressed so I could restart it."

"I'll have Yuuichirou-san take care of that, so don't worry about it." His gentle expressions swiftly turned dour as he spoke of the more pressing subject. "Anyway, I think we should take some measures to defend the shrine from this evil spirit."

"It's most likely just a dumb youma the Dark Kingdom sent to mess with me. I can deal with it once I find the thing, but I'm not sure it's anything too serious."

"But still, I believe it's a smart thing to do, especially for something powerful enough to extinguish the Sacred Fire. Besides, you're not going to be here all day, and who knows what this thing is capable of or what its aims are."

That latter comment forced Rei to momentarily freeze in place. "Do you think I should stay here and deal with this thing?"

"Only if you truly feel you must. I'm not forcing you to skip school and stay here for our sake."

The shrine maiden slowly shook her head before worriedly gazing at her beloved grandfather. "I'm sure things will be okay if I took one day off, even if it is the second day of the new term. I'll probably be punished for my absence, but I don't care. If I left and something happened to you all in my absence, I wouldn't be able to live with myself."

"Very well." He walked over to the girl and gave her a brief but heartfelt hug. "I'll get everything we need prepared so that, hopefully, we can get rid of this thing once and for all."

"While you're doing that, I'll go restart the fire." By then her tone had eased, though internally she remained quite miffed at the thought of dealing with that aggravating being.

Her grandfather nodded before departing, leaving Rei to remove her school uniform and dress once again in her ceremonial robes. A few minutes later she exited her bedroom wearing the traditional red and white garb and headed toward the fire room. She made sure she had her transformation pen handy as she was determined to rid the place of the bothersome youma upon finding its hiding place. As she approached the door leading to the Sacred Fire she felt the familiar negative aura that signified the presence of that very threat grow with each step.

"Okay, I'm done playing around with this damned thing," she muttered under her breath as she reached into her pocket and removed the transformation pen.

Yet, even as she was prepared to take the form of the senshi of Mars the painful tingling sensation that indicated the existence of negative energy disappeared, apparently along with its source. It left her simultaneously feeling confused and enraged as she knew the thing was playing with her once again. Nonetheless, she opted to continue with the act of transforming, and after a few seconds and the obligatory bright flash of red light the fire-imbued warrior was charging toward the door. However, as soon as she crossed the threshold she froze in her tracks and blankly stared at the scene that greeted her in middle of the room.

"_What the heck is going on?"_

Dancing before her eyes were the tremendous yellow flames of the Sacred Fire. Complete and absolute astonishment was not enough to describe her feelings of the sight.

"_Grandpa couldn't have done this since it's only been a few minutes since I told him about the fire going out. I'm sure Yuuichirou didn't do it either."_

"Hello, Rei-san. I hope you don't mind me restarting the fire for you, as I knew you were about to do that anyway." The smug, feminine voice sounded strangely familiar to the girl's ears. However, it was muffled enough that she couldn't associate a name or face with the voice.

"Who are you?" The shakiness in her voice betrayed her best attempts to conceal her trepidation.

"Somebody you know very well, and yet nobody in particular."

"You're the one responsible for the negative energy, aren't you?" By then her fear had morphed into anger. Her eyes darted about the room in a frantic attempt to locate her conversation partner.

"What negative energy?" the woman innocently asked. "I don't feel anything particularly evil around here. I would know if there was, especially since sensing auras is my specialty."

"I'm not talking about right now, but earlier."

"That might have been true, but as far as I know there is nothing here you should be afraid of. Not anymore."

"I don't believe you!"

"That's a shame." The woman's tone hinted disappointment. "I came all this way to look after you and the first thing you do is accuse me of being evil. All I want to do is help you."

Rage swiftly morphed into disbelief. "Help me?"

"Yes. Help you." The woman then adopted a more pleasant tone. "I was told that you needed help in taking care of something that was bothering you, and so I came to assist you. I don't quite know what I'm supposed to be looking for since I just got here, but I hope whatever it is shows up again so we can deal with it."

"Who told you to come here to 'help' me?"

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that. Not right now. That person doesn't like to release her identity, as it makes her job much easier."

"Well, if that's the case, how is it possible that I can trust you if I don't know anything about you or what you intend to do?" Rei's eyes, along with the rest of the shrine maiden, had started to turn red with fury. She would have pointed those furious eyes at the source of her anger but for the fact she still could not find it.

"I'm sorry to say, but you'll just have to for now. Maybe through my actions I can earn your trust."

Rei merely snorted in response to the suggestion, which was an amazing display of self-control given her famously short temper. Instead she attempted to calm down well enough to slip into a state of deep concentration and pinpoint this mysterious woman's location. She figured the being could not have been too far away as she could clearly hear her. Her eyelids slid shut and a few seconds later her body emitted a pale red light as she attempted to sense any extant forms of energy. Indeed, she managed to find a tremendous source of negative energy within the fire room. Unfortunately for her, it was extremely powerful—so much so that simply touching it might have been instantly lethal—and stupendously quick. Furthermore, it was bearing down on her position, and there was no probable way she could move fast enough to evade the strike. It appeared her first true contact with the creature that haunted the shrine and previously annoyed her to no end ultimately would lead to her demise.

—|1|**2**|3|4|5|—

Minako exhaled a heavy sigh before looking down at her plate and the food heaped upon it. Her mouth watered slightly from the smell and the sight. It was not every day that she had an opportunity to eat such food, let alone two days in a row if her visit the previous evening was counted. Clearly a hamburger was not the healthiest thing she could have chosen to eat, but it tasted exceptionally good, and that was all she cared about at the moment when it came to sustenance. She lifted the burger from the plate and was about to take a bite from it when her eyes spotted a familiar chestnut brown ponytail belonging to a tall girl at the far end of the café.

"_Makoto…"_ she thought as a mood of panic swept her.

The appearance of her fellow senshi created a dilemma for the girl who, at least for the moment, was the leader of the group. One part of her wanted to duck away and hide as she knew Makoto was not happy with her. Another argument with a girl who obviously surpassed her in physical strength was not something that sounded inviting. She remembered—barely—what happened to Rei in their last confrontation. However, a separate part of her soul wanted to do whatever she could to fix the problems between the two girls as quickly as possible so that they could return to being friends. Weeks had passed since the girls had seen each other, a length of time she felt was utterly ridiculous. It was that latter facet that ultimately triumphed and prevented her from doing something potentially embarrassing. So, as the brunette spotted the blonde and slowly approached the booth, Minako made no attempt to leave.

"Would you mind if I joined you?" Makoto asked tentatively, as though the two had never before been acquainted.

Minako slowly shook her head and extended a hand to the empty bench across from her. "I'm actually glad you came."

Makoto slid into the seat and latched onto the gaze coming from her booth partner with a similar glum stare. "How are things?" Her hesitant whisper made the question sound slightly awkward.

"I wish I could say they were good, but I would be lying."

"What's wrong?"

"You mean, beyond the obvious?"

Makoto slowly nodded, fully expecting some sort of further response. What she did not anticipate was nearly a full minute of uncomfortable silence wherein Minako's stare was wholeheartedly fixed on the tabletop. During that entire time, the blonde just sat there almost frozen, not even bothering to touch the burger sitting in front of her despite her powerful hunger. When she did speak, her solemn words delivered in an almost inaudible whisper came as a near shock.

"I've done some horrible, horrible things."

"We all did."

That response clearly failed to assuage the senshi of love's despair or address her main concern, as evidenced by the forceful shaking of her head.

"I'm talking about what I did to you. Sure, I was a terrible leader in ordering you to attack Usagi-chan, but even worse was when I tried to do the same to you." Makoto's eyes narrowed slightly as she easily recalled the incident that Minako painfully described. "Could you find it in your heart to forgive me?"

Even though the entire atmosphere of the conversation pointed toward that inevitable request, the question still caught the brunette slightly off guard.

"What?"

"_Please_, Mako-chan!" Minako said more forcefully as she finally lifted her eyes to meet the puzzled gaze aimed at her. It was blatant from the tear streaks on her pale red cheeks that she had been silently crying, and she continued to do so as she reiterated her plea. "I'm sorry for attacking you and for trying to take away your transformation pen. I'm sorry for calling you a traitor. I'm sorry for trying to hurt you the same way I hurt Usagi-chan. I can understand if you don't want to accept my apology, but I'm begging you…"

Makoto's eyes widened as she felt a mixture of concern and sympathy before those same eyes narrowed once again. Understandably she was skeptical, as Minako was a good actress and could be quite convincing when necessary. However, in her heart she knew that the girl was unquestionably sincere in her apology, and it would have been both inappropriate and unhealthy to hold a grudge against her. So, she did what she believed to be the most sensible thing. She reached across the table and gently grasped one of Minako's lightly trembling hands. The gesture seemed to work as the convulsing stopped and the tears lessened.

"I'm also sorry," she said both tenderly and guiltily as she stared even more deeply into Minako's moistened eyes. "I overreacted when you and Rei-chan confronted me and I almost killed you. I didn't want to, but I did."

Minako gasped and her eyes widened in pure bafflement as the words entered her ears. "Y-you tried to… to _kill_ me? When? How? I don't remember you trying to do anything like that."

Makoto shook her head in dejection and sheepishly averted her gaze. "I didn't mean to. Rei-chan tried to grab the transformation pen from my hands and I tossed her away. However, I ended up throwing her into you and you hit your head against the stone so hard that I thought for a second that you were dead right then and there. You were out cold and apparently didn't wake up until later that day when someone from the Dark Kingdom—I figure it has to be Kunzite—came to the shrine and attacked you."

"Kunzite was at the _shrine_?" Minako's countenance shifted from one of perplexity to unadulterated horror, and in her distress she almost forgot she was surrounded by other patrons and allowed her voice to rise.

The response to her unspoken question provoked a heavy sigh. "I'm afraid I hurt you far worse than I thought I did. I'm sorry for that as well."

The fearful look disappeared from Minako's face and she merely stared at Makoto with a quizzical expression for several seconds before responding with optimism. "I guess we're both sorry for a lot of things. But, as long as we're willing to forgive one another for them we can move on and become friends once again. And I'm willing to forgive you."

"In that case, I absolutely forgive you as well." A tiny smile graced her lips as she spoke, one that was reciprocated by the blonde.

Silence dominated once again, but the tension that had wracked both girls was gone. Instead, the atmosphere between them was one of contentment. It provided them a vital sense of serenity. Minako certainly needed that more than the brunette as she had yet to repair her relationship with Usagi. However, what was more important that evening was that it gave her an opportunity to finally eat the hamburger that had taunted her the entire time. And eat it she did, in a manner of voraciousness that would have made her princess proud.

—|1|2|**3**|4|5|—

The mere fact she could open her eyes at all both surprised and delighted the fire senshi. Only seconds ago she was all but certain she was dead. She was ambushed and caught flat-footed, and as a result she could not evade the oncoming attack. All she wished for was that her demise would come swiftly and painlessly, and that her grandfather and Yuuichirou would not join her in meeting such a dismal fate. However, she did not die. She did take a brutal hit, one that tossed her clear across the room and left her entire body aching and probably bruised, but she somehow survived. By some miracle she was rescued by something… or someone.

"Are you alright?" the strange woman cautiously asked. Her voice seemed to resonate about the fire room, but in no way did it reveal her location—if she even had one.

"Barely," Rei said between ragged breaths.

"I'm glad, as I barely had enough time to erect the shield needed to protect you from that sudden blast."

"T-thanks, I guess."

"It seems that whatever being has inhabited this spiritual place has stopped trying to annoy you and instead is trying to eliminate you." The woman's voice had calmed from the strangely ominous tone it carried moments ago. "The good news is it shouldn't be able to leave here as I sealed this chamber with my magic. The problem is that it's still invisible, which means we can't do anything to stop it until we can actually see it."

"So… you're saying you can't do anything about it either?"

"Hey, I'm not a god or anything like that," the woman sourly replied. "I'm constrained by my capabilities just like you. And, just like you, I can't hit what I can't see. But, if you don't want my help with this, I'll leave you to your fate."

Rei briefly shuddered as she remembered what could have happened to her if that woman's shield did not materialize just in time. "Okay. I'm sorry. I guess nearly dying made me jumpy and irritable. But, I do honestly appreciate what you did for me."

The familiar negative aura returned a few moments later, followed shortly thereafter by a blast of dark energy that originated from the far corner of the room. It was a tremendous swirling red and violet orb that moved much slower than the previous strike but was no less lethal. At the same time the sphere traversed across the room, the flames from the Sacred Fire that hitherto had been burning steadily flared and rose to lick the ceiling before suddenly dying out. Rei had been tracking the sphere but briefly lost her concentration when the fire went out and pitched the room into darkness. She did not know where the attack was until she felt something slam harshly into her side and fling her into the wall.

"Rei-san!"

Much like in the aftermath from the previous impact, the shrine maiden felt immensely thankful to still be alive, albeit in incredible pain. Despite the raucous complaints from her muscles she slowly pushed herself from the cold hardwood floor and onto her feet. The anger boiled inside her and searched for an outlet, though with nothing tangible at which to direct her rage she found it difficult to control. It was starting to dominate her emotions and guide her actions, which by all logic was an extremely perilous way to conduct a battle. However, there was no way she was going to let that vile creature defeat her in her own home, especially with her cherished family so dangerously close.

"Where are you, you goddamned youma?" she furiously yelled once she was upright. "Come out and show yourself!"

"Please calm down, Rei-san," the woman said as gently as possible. "That's not going to help you."

"Oh, and what _is_ going to help me?"

"You must remain patient. The thing that is attacking us is doing so because it feels it is cornered and cannot escape. That much I can clearly sense. If we can get it to expend so much energy that it becomes weak and drops its invisibility spell, then we should be able to find and destroy it."

"But how do we get it to do that without it throwing that energy at _me_? I'm hurting enough as it is."

"The thing is targeting you specifically, so I don't know if I have an answer to that question." The senshi was about to explode with anger when she deftly added, "I'll do what I can to fortify the shield that protects you so you won't be injured so much."

Another attack sped toward Rei, this time an odious green sphere that cackled with white-hot bolts of lightning. Her eyes reflexively widened in terror as the electrified sphere raced at her head, prompting her to duck. Like the first attack, however, it moved faster than the impulse from her brain could travel through her nerves and down to her leg. Suddenly it exploded right in front of her face, shoving her backward a few feet but causing her no further injury. Nevertheless it did instill within her mind an amount of fear that was on par with the earlier attacks.

"It's lashing out, but the shield blocked its attack that time."

"I-I'm glad. T-thanks for t-that," Rei graciously replied. Her body trembled autonomously despite all attempts to steady her limbs and continued to do so for about a minute.

"It's why I'm here." Maybe due to her ongoing stress, the woman's haughty tone was not off-putting to the nervous shrine maiden.

The pervasive atmosphere of dark energy that existed since the second attack slowly dissipated, and the Sacred Fire flared back to life for the second time that day. The energy's abrupt absence utterly baffled the senshi of fire as the creature responsible for it had seemed intent on killing the girl.

"What the hell is this thing doing now?"

"I wouldn't let my guard down if I were you," the woman cautioned. "It could just be biding its time, conserving its energy while waiting for another opportunity to strike. However, I won't leave your side and I'll do my best to help you."

Rei slowly turned about as she tried to survey the area around her and perceive as best she could the energy that filled the room. All she could feel was the warmth and positive energy from the fire, that in spite of the enigmatic woman's insistence that she had erected a shield specifically designed to prevent the loathsome creature from leaving. However, the lack of a negative aura was not a sign of the being's absence, and she was not about to relax or reduce her concentration for fear of being ambushed. No, she was going to do whatever it took to rid the shrine of the deadly pest, even if it meant remaining at the peak of alertness for several hours without respite, and without any overt sign of a threat.

—|1|2|3|**4**|5|—

The tips of Usagi's golden pigtails nearly touched the floor as she sprawled lazily across the unbelievably soft and comfortable bed and wearily stared up at the ceiling. It was not quite the same as her own bed—which likely was sitting in storage somewhere in Kyoto by that juncture—but she felt she could become accustomed to it. In any case, she felt fortunate to have the bed for that night, the result of a plan she and Ami had conceived to alternate who gets to sleep on the far more bearable mattress. As a reflection of their magnanimous natures, that arrangement arose from the fact that both girls constantly tried to take the firmer cot while graciously offering the bed to the other person. That Wednesday it belonged to Usagi, but she remained slightly reluctant as she wholeheartedly believed the senshi of water deserved it more. After all, that girl was the one who, for all intents and purposes, was brutally and painfully killed.

However, she was not about to make any complaints that evening as she was exhausted after a long day of school. Her classes were more advanced and consequently more difficult than what she had taken while she was a student in Juuban. It was her decision to challenge herself mentally, and she was not second-guessing her choice one bit, but the need to remain constantly attentive during lectures still was new to her. Only a few weeks ago the blonde was a horrible student who did not bother to demonstrate her plainly evident mental aptitude. No, she was not nearly as brainy as Ami, and math still was practically unfathomable to her, but she had unequivocally proven she was not stupid.

"_How on Earth could Ami spend so much time in school?"_ she pondered as she referred to her absent friend. She exhaled a tired sigh. _"One session per day is enough for me right now. Doing cram school on top of that would make me go insane."_

She rolled onto her side and glanced at the time of 5:30 PM displayed in bright red numbers on the alarm clock. It meant that Ami would not return home for at least another hour as she had to complete the three-hour period of cram school. Her absence annoyed Usagi as she wanted to speak with Ami for longer than the fifty-minute lunch break about her experiences in designing, constructing, and distributing the new communicators. A part of her held the inclination to use the light-pink device she received to send text messages to her friend while she was in class, but her more logical side quickly nixed that idea. That definitely would not have been a proper use of senshi equipment, and the last time she played around with the device Ami was, in short, quite displeased.

Instead, after completing the mountain of homework her teachers assigned that day, she decided to indulge in one of her greater passions. She pulled from her shoulder bag a brand new sketchpad and box of colored art pencils and set them down on the desk. It was the second sketchpad Saeko had purchased for her—willingly, of course. She still had no idea what happened to the first one she received from the doctor, and ravaging her bag failed to turn up any sign of it. Meanwhile, her original sketchpad was in storage along with the rest of her belongings. The blonde hoped to see them again soon as they knew they did not have to continue with that aspect of their deception, but in the interim she was grateful to have something she could use to draw.

"_Now, what am I actually going to draw?"_ she asked herself as she searched her mind for some inspiration.

The answer came soon, and just as quickly she grabbed a pencil and began to make light strokes across the smooth white paper that took the vague form of a human. Indeed, after a few minutes it was evident that the person whose figure progressively became clearer and more refined was the senshi of lightning. It was a bright and cheerful image of the brunette, one that utterly contrasted with the girl's distressing childhood. Usagi decided to place her within a background consisting of the lush forest that composed a significant part of Higashiyama ward and Ikuko's magnificent garden. Nature was Makoto's element and the place where she was happiest, and so it only made sense in Usagi's mind to use such a setting. It took a little longer than a half hour to complete the sketch that she fully intended to give to her newly recovered friend the next opportunity she had to visit her.

"I sincerely hope she likes it," she said softly as she carefully detached the page from her sketchbook and placed it into a protective sleeve. A warm smile crept onto her lips. "No, I'm positive she'll love it."

At about that time the melodious ringing of her cell phone broke the silence. She reached into her bag and removed the handset but did not immediately answer the call. The number displayed on the outer screen was not one immediately familiar to her, but she had the uncanny feeling she had seen it somewhere before. Hesitantly she flipped open the lid and raised the phone to her ear.

"Hello?"

"Ah, hello. May I speak with Tsukino Usagi?" a woman on the other end politely requested. The blonde instantly recognized the sound of the lady's voice and at the same time recalled how she knew that telephone number.

"It's me, Azusa-san," Usagi cheerfully replied. "I'm so glad to hear from you. How are you and Mariko-san?"

Azusa's tone was far more sullen. "We're doing rather well, all things considered. I don't know if you've heard or not, but our studio had received quite a bit of damage a few days ago."

Indeed, Usagi knew quite intimately what had occurred within the studio, but she was not about to reveal such awareness over an unsecured telephone connection. "I heard a little bit about that. I'm sorry that it happened to you guys," she said, though with a tone that was more apologetic than necessary.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much. It's true that, right now, nobody knows who did it or their motive for trashing the place. We hope the police are able to uncover more information about that and find the perpetrators. However, it's only a small setback in our plan to produce the photo book, and we intend to start shooting in early July as planned."

"I'm glad."

"I figured you would be. As I said, the shoots themselves weren't affected by this, though some of our camera equipment was destroyed. The bigger problem is that we'd need to find a new place to house the studio, which isn't so much a concern when we're on location but it will be afterward when we're processing the photos."

A few seconds of silence fell over the line. Usagi's mind wrestled with conflicting thoughts during that agonizing eternity. On one hand, she knew that secrecy concerning her identity was of utmost importance, and that the fewer people knowing equated to fewer people placed in mortal danger. Of course, her family had to know, especially since they were nearly killed despite their prior ignorance. With the Dark Kingdom knowing so much about them already, that wasn't much of a threat. The only person she could immediately justify letting in on her secret was Naru, and that was because she considered the girl one of her best friends. In fact, she probably was closer to a sister, and probably the only true friend she had who was not a senshi. However, her need to conceal her identity clashed with her intense desire to give Azusa some closure and an honest explanation of what had occurred that fateful evening. She had every intention in joining the photographer and her partner in their photo shoot. Because of that, the last thing she wanted was to feel so much excruciating guilt every time she encountered one of the two women. But, despite not being the one known for such a logical personality, that mindset eventually overcame her natural compassion. She balled her free hand into a tight fist, clenched her eyes shut, and took a deep breath in an attempt to find calm before she spoke once again.

"D-do you know where the new studio is going to be?"

Azusa loudly sighed. "Right now I don't have any idea. If worst came to worst, I could do it at my home, though space is at a definite premium here. On the other hand, our current studio might be salvageable if everything works in our dealings with the insurance company."

"I absolutely hope it does." Her words were barely a whisper by then, but somehow Azusa was able to hear them.

"I do too." By then, she seemed more at peace with her situation, though Usagi could not say the same thing. "I'm sorry that I had to tell you any of this, but I figured it was important that you knew since you're so integral to this project of ours."

"Really?"

"Oh, of course!" Azusa began to chuckle. "Mariko-chan still can't shut up about you, even though she hasn't seen you for weeks. If Kousuke-san wasn't in her life, I'd seriously wonder if she weren't infatuated with you. And, even then, I'm not entirely sure. She just might change her mind the next time she sees you."

Usagi counted her fortunes that she was on the phone and not speaking with the woman face-to-face. That way, her wide-eyed expression of utter shock and nervousness could remain hidden. However, her voice was less able to conceal those emotions.

"I-I'm… uh, happy she f-feels that way about me, I g-guess."

"I'm _kidding_, Usagi-san." By then, she was on the verge of full-blown laughter. "If there's any truth in this universe, it's that Mariko-chan's heart fully belongs to Kousuke-san, and vice versa. Having said that, it's definitely true she likes you a lot."

Though she still felt some apprehension, Usagi allowed a faint smile to tug at her lips. "Well, maybe I'll get a chance to see her again sometime in the future."

"I do hope so. I know you're quite busy at this time with school just starting for you, but if you ever have a break one of these weekends, we'll be thrilled to see you. Just let me know ahead of time so I can put Mariko-chan on a leash."

"You don't have to worry about that. I've survived her enthusiasm twice before."

"That's good." The two shared mirthful giggles for a few seconds. "Anyway, I have to go now. The last thing I want is for Mariko-chan to keel over from exhaustion. I know she tends to push herself to the brink, but that time she collapsed truly frightened me. That's something I never want to experience ever again."

"I understand. Please take good care of her, and tell her I said hello."

"Absolutely. Have a good night, Usagi-san."

"You too, Azusa-san."

The blonde closed the phone shut and allowed the hunk of metal and plastic to fall from her hand as she collapsed across the bed once again. Unlike before, her exhaustion did not arise from the loads of schoolwork she had to endure. Her eyes dimmed and eventually began to water as she blankly stared at the ceiling. She could all but sense the guilt eating at her soul, yet there was nothing she could do about it. Neither Mariko nor Azusa could know the truth, not at the current juncture. Maybe not ever. It certainly was not the only time she had to be deceptive about her secret, nor would it be the last. But, for some reason, this lie hurt a lot more than the others. Tears ran freely down her cheeks as she forced her eyes shut and tried to find sleep.

—|1|2|3|4|**5**|—

Time seemed to move at an agonizingly slow pace as Rei continuously surveyed the room holding the Sacred Fire, checking every inch of the chamber over and over again for any sign of the enemy that had attempted on three separate occasions to kill her. She intermittently sensed surges of negative energy that were indicative of an impending attack and, upon each occurrence, quickly spun about to face the apparent threat. However, each time the signal mysteriously disappeared before she could lay her eyes on her intended target, assuming such a thing even existed. For five solid hours she tried to locate and combat what she thought to be a youma that haunted that room and persistently pestered her. Near the end of that time she was starting to become very fatigued despite the encouraging words vocalized by that enigmatic and hidden woman. It was one o'clock in the afternoon, meaning she had been awake for almost nine hours. Moreover, she did not have an opportunity to eat breakfast before the battle, and lunch certainly was out of the question given her precarious state. However, she believed her demise would come at the hands of that obscured beast if she dropped her guard for even a few seconds, thus placing Yuuichirou and her grandfather in severe danger. That was not something she would ever allow if she had the choice.

"Are you doing alright, Rei-san?"

"I'm fine," Rei replied, although her lethargic tone belied her optimistic words.

"Just hang in th—_watch out_!"

At that moment a massive blast of negative energy, taking the appearance of a swirling orb of red fire through which passed several bolts of greenish-white lightning, raced at the startled senshi. Only at the last second could she feel the attack bearing down upon her from behind, meaning that it was too late for her to dodge upon swiveling to meet it. The gargantuan and immensely powerful glowing ball struck her headlong and tossed her into the solid wall twenty feet behind her. Luckily, she had the presence of mind to raise her arms over her had to provide a modicum of protection from the attack, but it was not enough to prevent the worst effects of the second impact. She groaned in agonizing pain as her body fell from the wall and to the floor.

"_What the hell? Did that woman's shield not work?"_ she thought as she attempted to push herself up from the hardwood floor, but the attack weakened her so greatly that she could hardly budge from the cold surface.

"Rei-san!" the woman shouted. "Rei-san, stay awake! The youma is about to show itself!"

The fiery warrior was still conscious despite her pathetic state and could hear the woman's pleas, but words alone were of little assistance. Her eyes were closed as she felt so dizzy the mere thought of trying to see anything made her nauseous. She heard a constant ringing in her ears the moment her head struck the wall, one that was excruciatingly slow in disappearing. Nevertheless, she could sense, and somewhat see through her eyelids, a pair of tremendous flashes of light, the latter occurring about five seconds after the former. Immediately thereafter the negative aura that already was forceful with the latest assault grew even stronger.

"That must be the energy from the youma that attacked me," Rei groggily whispered to herself.

As she made that statement, the pain that previously overwhelmed her was replaced by a passionate fury and desire to exact her revenge against the monster. She soon rose to her feet and turned her eyes in the direction of the apex of that evil energy. For the first time that day—and the two days prior—she saw something tangible against which she could deliver her attacks and her vengeance. She wasted no time in taking advantage of her opportunity by pressing together her hands and igniting a massive ball of red flame at the tips of her index fingers.

"_Fire Soul!_"

If the shrine maiden's vision were clearer, she would have observed that her opponent was just as surprised to be assaulted as she was eager to be dispensing that strike. Indeed, it was a youma, the common soldiers of the Dark Kingdom and the bane of any senshi's existence. However, it was a creature that had adopted a spectacularly human-like appearance, so much so that everyone had assumed it was just a normal woman. If Rei's eyesight were not clouded by latent dizziness, she would have noted she had seen the being with long, violet hair and pale-blue eyes several times before, although always in passing, and had never thought anything of it. Sure, there were just a few details that were "off" if she had paid more attention, but they were nothing glaring. In that light she would have been utterly astonished that the creature she had considered a fellow human exuded an aura that readily suggested she was anything but. However, she could not perceive those things, nor did she have to in order to carry out her attack. That action also lacked a requirement to know that not every youma was the same, and that some youmas were more or less powerful than others. The senshi of fire did not have to recognize that, in general, the more adept a youma was at mimicking a human the less powerful was its offensive capability. The only thing she knew as the ball of flame hit the youma and caused it to explode into a pile of sandy dust was that she was finally free from the relentless threat it represented.

"Finally!" she shouted as she felt the negative energy depart from the chamber.

Or so she thought. Almost as soon as she felt exaltation from defeating the youma, she saw another brilliant flash of golden light erupt in the far corner of the room. The amount of negative energy concomitantly surged, which caused her to immediately presume that the two beings that materialized within the chamber were responsible for that aura. Those two youmas were very similar to the initial creature in possessing humanlike manifestations. Much like that first youma, they were utterly shocked to abruptly find themselves inside the shrine instead of surreptitiously monitoring the compound from the nearby tree line. Of course, Rei had none of that prior knowledge as she turned incensed eyes to the pair.

"Watch out, Rei-san! There were two more of those monsters hiding in here!" the woman warned. "I'll take care of one while you get rid of the other."

Rei retrieved an ofuda and held it in her hands as she stared menacingly at one of the startled youmas, a feminine being similar to the first but with paler skin and different-colored eyes and hair. Not that any of those details mattered to her one whit. She tossed the enchanted paper at the otherwise evil creature while shouting, "_Akuryo Taisen_," ultimately causing the youma to become frozen in place. The warrior then turned her attention to its partner, leaving that particular youma to its fate at the hands of the strange woman. Instead, she would concentrate her efforts on the youma that took the appearance of a taller man as she guessed that particular one was the more powerful adversary. She repeated her earlier actions and launched yet another flaming ball from her extended fingers. As expected she received similar results.

"_Got that bastard!"_ she thought while a satisfied grin pulled at her lips.

Meanwhile, the youma Rei decided to leave alone to the woman suffered a far crueler fate than it would have received from experiencing the business end of the senshi's scorching attack. The being's skin bubbled and pulsated, changing from opalescent to purple and finally to black as it was filled with far more negative energy than it could handle despite being born from evil. The creature wanted to shout in agony but the pressure on its airway prevented it from making any sound. Soon it exploded with a dazzling flash of yellow light, spreading golden dust across the room in its wake. The youma was fortunate it only had to endure a few seconds of such extreme pain before meeting its demise.

"I-Is there a-anything else we h-have to deal with?" Indubitably, exhaustion caught up to Rei once again, and it caused her to speak sluggishly as she struggled to catch her breath.

There were a few seconds of silence before the answer arrived, but the response was the one desired by the weary senshi. "Nothing that I can sense. It seems your problem is solved."

"Great. T-thank you v-very much for your h-help."

"It _truly_ is my pleasure," the woman merrily replied. "I hope that's the end of your troubles, but if it isn't I'll be around to help you as best as I can. Until then, I hope you stay safe." A small burst of air that flew around the chamber and slightly perturbed the flames from the Sacred Fire marked both her disappearance and the only palpable sign of her presence.

The winded shrine maiden then fell to her knees as she heard the doors slam open. Burgeoning reverberations of footsteps foretold the appearance of Yuuichirou and her grandfather at her side. She was grateful for their safety in light of her recent destruction of what she considered vicious youmas.

"Rei…" Her grandfather bent down at her side to help lift the girl to her feet. Yuuichirou crouched at the other side of the girl and gently placed an arm under hers.

"Don't worry. I finally got those youmas," Rei said softly as she allowed her transformation to fade with a dim flash of red light. The pair momentarily was stunned by the act as she returned to wearing her ceremonial robes.

Yuuichirou's expression as he looked toward the exhausted girl screamed outright confusion. "So, the thing that was haunting the shrine was an enemy?"

Rei nodded languidly. "There were three of them here, and they almost killed me, but there was this woman who came and protected me."

"Woman? What woman?" her grandfather asked.

"I—I'm not quite sure. I couldn't see her at all, but she could talk to me and I could talk to her, and she blocked many of the attacks. If it weren't for her I would've been dead hours ago." The two men briefly turned perplexed and startled expressions to one another before the shrine maiden reassured them of her health. "I said don't worry. I'm just a little tired, that's all."

"Well, in any case I sincerely hope there won't be a repeat of this as Yuuichirou-san and I placed protective wards around the shrine. We tried to get you to help us but there was no way we could open the doors until just now."

"That was the work of that strange woman trying to keep the youmas from escaping." She gave the pair a light smile and received a pair of understanding nods in return. "Anyway, I think I need a long nap and something to eat, although right now I don't know which one I want first."

"I'll go make us all lunch," the elderly man said with a chuckle. "You'll definitely want that before you go to bed."

"Now that you say it, I think that probably is a better plan."

With Yuuichirou's much-needed assistance just to maintain her balance, a horribly blushing Rei slowly staggered out of the fire room. It was blatantly evident she would need the remainder of the day to restore the energy sapped by the long and arduous fight, but there was plenty of time left in the afternoon for doing exactly that. Without school or any further responsibilities required of her, and the immense satisfaction gained from clearing the shrine of the bothersome youmas, the raven-haired girl knew she would have a truly restful and enjoyable slumber.

_Chapter 8 published June 7, 2013._


	9. The Amazing Mr Grayson

**9 | The Amazing Mr. Grayson**

Minako sported a tepid smile as she departed from midday lunch with Makoto in an ultimately vain attempt to conceal her melancholy. At some point, their conversation had shifted to what she and the shrine maiden could do to win back Usagi's trust and affections. She always ended up feeling that way whenever she contemplated the effectively nonexistent relationship she had with her princess, one she desperately wanted to repair yet had no clue how to go about doing it. Makoto was of little help. Granted, the brunette was fortunate enough to not be as big of an idiot as she and the shrine maiden had been. Nevertheless, such foresight also meant not having any useful experience to dole out. As far as she knew, a miracle would have been necessary if she were going to become friends again with Usagi.

A piercing shriek tore the girl from her almost robotic motions and piqued her vigilance. She sensed it came from somewhere very close to the street along which she meandered, but she could not tell exactly where. In any case, somebody was in serious trouble and she needed to check it out at the very least. If it were a youma attack, one that seemed to be quite rare in recent days, then it was her duty to defeat that agent of darkness. She could not afford to neglect her duties no matter how miserable she felt. On the other hand, if it were not one of those hated monsters, then she could at least be in position to alert the local authorities. Though not necessarily one of her responsibilities it would at least demonstrate her conscientiousness. It would prove a bit of her worth as both a senshi and a human being.

It was the second yell, one far more bloodcurdling than the first, which told her where she needed to sprint. A chill shot down her spine as she realized the shout could only come from someone much younger than her. After a quick check of her surroundings, one that showed her unusually isolated for a public street just after noon, she doubled her pace and dashed into the nearby alley. There she found that her suspicions were horrifyingly correct.

A young girl, who Minako guessed was no older than ten, cowered against the wall of the alley, her body trembling in fear and despair. The girl's torn blouse suggested that she had been caught in some kind of struggle, but otherwise she was uninjured. Surrounding her were a handbag and a jacket far too large to fit her, both recently abandoned. Something tremendous had occurred, and Minako was too late to prevent it.

"_Dammit. What the hell kind of senshi am I to let somebody get hurt like this, youma or not?"_ She focused her gaze upon the crouching brunette. _"At the very least I should see what I can do for this poor girl."_

She slowly approached the girl and tenderly placed a hand on her shoulder. The girl yelped and frightfully winced, but when she saw who had touched her she immediately seemed to calm down. Minako cautiously smiled as she looked over the child.

"Don't worry. You're perfectly okay now," she said soothingly. "I'm going to go get some help. Could you tell me what happened to you?"

"My mom and dad were taken from me," the young girl hoarsely whispered. Tears threatened to fall from her eyes as she spoke. "Monsters came by and grabbed them."

"What kind of monster?"

"I-I don't know. It was big, way bigger than my dad. There were several of them. He tried to save my mom and me but the monster made him disappear. They made my mom disappear too. But, they ran away before they could hurt me."

Minako momentarily looked upward at the sky as the thoughts ran through her mind. _"So it was a youma after all. Or multiple youmas it seems. What the hell are they trying to do now? In any case I should go and transform and track the things down. From what she said they couldn't have gone far. I'll tell the others as well since I don't think I can take on more than one by myself."_

"Thank you."

"What?" The girl's sob-filled words of appreciation caught the contemplative blonde unaware.

"They ran away because you came for me."

"I'm sure your parents will be just fine." She gave the girl a sympathetic smile. "In the meantime, we should get you out of here and call the police."

"What about the Sailor Senshi? Should someone call them as well?"

"Um… I don't think you can call them, really. It doesn't quite work that way." She chuckled, and then cursed herself for how nervous it sounded. "They just… know when these sorts of things happen, I guess. But, don't worry. They'll definitely find the monsters and rescue your parents."

The young girl solemnly nodded. "I hope so."

Minako turned her head toward the alley's entrance to better see what she had barely glimpsed from the corner of her eye. She caught a peek of something or someone suspicious—she couldn't exactly tell which one it was—dashing away at great speed, though she heard no footsteps. Whatever it was, it caused her to pull away from the girl and run off investigate. Maybe it was one of the youmas or maybe it was something else. Unfortunately she never had an opportunity to find out as the moment she was a few steps away from the young girl she felt something smash into her back, knocking her face-down into the ground. At the same time she heard the girl's earsplitting scream.

"The monsters! They're back!"

She pushed away from the hard concrete and twisted around to lay her eyes on the beasts, but by the moment she was in a position to see anything she could see nothing at all. The entire alley was shrouded in complete darkness. Given the brilliant sun and cloudless sky, the last thing she expected was an inky blackness that was inappropriate even for nighttime. In her mind she was convinced it was the work of those youmas, as were her pounding headache and churning stomach. If she couldn't see anything then neither could anyone else, and thus she thought it safe to transform. However, it did not mean she was alone. She could plainly hear light footsteps slowly creeping away from her and muffled whimpers of distress. Also, the blast of dark energy that tossed her into a nearby wall reminded her that the monsters were also still there.

It required about a minute for senshi of love and beauty to recover from that strike. Her head still felt as though it was about to explode, she still felt like vomiting at any moment, and though her vision had returned the most she could see was murky mess of brown and gray. Worse, she no longer could hear the girl's muted sobbing. By then, it seemed she truly was alone, and her anxiety began to skyrocket.

"_What the heck just happened? Did those things take her too?"_

Pushing herself to her feet and turning around, she could see a large, swirling patch of blue, but not much more than that. Was that the exit to the street? She was determined to find out, as soon as she could steady herself. One outstretched hand found a wall to her right, while the other grasped nothing but air. She made sure her fingers remained in contact with that rough surface as she cautiously made her way forward. Blue continued to fill her vision until it practically was the only thing she could see at all in that direction. It was clear to her that she had not reached the end of the alley. Disappointment reigned, though that emotion quickly gave way to curiosity. She cautiously extended her left hand in front of her. It proved to be a mistake. Merely touching that blue mass brought her immense pain, as though her fingers were on fire. She swiftly yanked her hand away and waved it about to remove the burning sensation. Luckily, it worked.

"_I guess that's also those youmas' fault, right? What the heck am I up against?"_

Those creatures, whatever they were, didn't give her time to ponder the answer to that question. Instead they pressed their attack, sending another blast at the defenseless warrior. That one caught her in the back and threw her straight into that painful barrier. Fortunately it had enough energy behind it to cause her to bounce off the obstruction and land somewhere in the middle of the alley. The attack was not strong enough to knock her out, but it blinded her yet again and left her feeling woefully dizzy.

"_What should I do? I can't see where anything is!"_

The sound of the young girl's weeping broke through the silence, driving up her already intense nervousness. What in the world could she do to save her poor victim from unknown assailants when she couldn't see any of them? She trusted in her first instinct, which was to move closer to the source of the crying. Maybe that way she would be in position to protect the girl from any attacks even if she could not counter them. With great determination she shuffled toward the sorrowful sound.

That was how she found herself lying face-first on the hard ground after taking only three paces, the result of yet another blast of negative energy from places unknown. Her entire body ached as she once again pushed herself to her feet. The crying, interrupted by a reverberating scream upon that attack, was louder, so quite possibly that infernal beast had done her the favor of knocking her closer to the child. However, it was apparent she wasn't close enough, and the next strike only ensured she would face an uphill battle in reaching that young victim.

—|1|**2**|3|—

"Why are we here again?" Haruka's disinterest was palpable as she stood in front of the door with arms akimbo. "There are better things I could be doing—things _we_ could be doing right now."

Michiru responded to her lover's obstinacy with a pout. "Oh, cheer up, Haruka-chan. You know Meiou-san wouldn't ask us to travel all the way here without a good reason."

The reply was met with a loud scoff. "And the reason is?"

"I'm sure we'll find out soon. Just stay patient."

"Great."

Annoyance set in quickly, and she began to tap her foot against the stone walkway, earning a sharp glare from Michiru. Her partner was mere moments away from delivering a full rebuke when the door opened. Their attention immediately was drawn to the woman standing before them.

"I'm pleased the two of you could make it here on such short notice." A broad smile covered Setsuna's lips as she bowed shallowly before the pair before stepping away from the threshold.

"Well, we weren't really busy to begin with, so it's no big deal," Michiru said, grinning playfully at Haruka.

The blonde shook her head and chuckled, albeit mirthlessly. "Nope, not busy at all. Just preparing for an upcoming race—at Suzuka, no less. That's it. Nothing _truly_ important."

"Haruka-chan!"

"Don't worry, Haruka-chan." Unlike the previous laughter, Setsuna's muted giggles were purely jovial. "I'm all but certain you will do absolutely fine in your first race there."

"You really think so?" Her eyes widened with nervous anticipation. "Could you tell me how I'll finish?" She was not deterred when the time senshi shook her head. "Please? Not even a tiny hint?"

"Even if I could predict the future with perfect accuracy, I wouldn't dare tell you. Besides, how can you derive any pleasure from the experience if you already know the outcome beforehand?"

Haruka muttered something inaudible before shrugging and resigning to defeat. "Meh. I guess you're right on that point."

"That I am."

Setsuna grinned at Michiru's amusement and Haruka's more obvious petulance before inviting the pair to take a seat at a nearby sofa. She sat across from them in a separate cushioned chair. Waiting for them on a nearby table was a teakettle and three already-filled cups, along with an assortment of scones. The presence of refreshments seemed to soothe the blonde's exasperation.

"Anyway, it would be very impolite of me to invite you all to my humble abode without making an honest attempt at being a decent hostess. Please help yourself to anything you'd like—within reason, of course."

"Thank you. And, on the contrary, your place is actually quite beautiful," Michiru said as she took one of the teacups. A polite smile toyed with her lips. "I might actually say that I'm slightly jealous of some aspects of your decorative design."

"You might say it's a taste borne from experience." She lifted the remaining cup from the table and took a small sip, grinning with delight before a more serious expression fell across her visage. "So, you might be wondering why I invited you all the way over here."

"You could say that," Haruka said.

"Well, for one, working in that hospital at all hours of the day or night only to return to an empty house does make me feel somewhat lonely." A very genuine pall of depression seemed to fall over Setsuna as she spoke, although subdued optimism soon displaced it. "Even if you aren't the same women I knew before and to whom I have grown accustomed, I absolutely do enjoy your company nonetheless."

"So, you're saying this is nothing more than a social visit?"

"Come on, Haruka-chan." Michiru's fury was starting to emerge, though she managed to catch herself in time before exploding at the other woman. She turned to Setsuna and bowed. "I'm sorry for my partner's continued rudeness, Meiou-san."

"Please call me Setsuna. You never have to be so formal with me. Also, I truly don't mind her antics, as I can understand her mindset." She grinned at Haruka, who clearly appeared startled, though it was unknown whether her reaction from the sudden attention or the gesture. "Suzuka is a very dangerous racetrack, especially for a beginner, despite your prodigious talent. That combined with our most evident concerns can make for quite a bit of pent-up stress, right?"

"I'm perfectly fine." Her defensive posture only led to even more suspicious stares from her two companions. "No! Really, I am!"

"Of course." Setsuna shook her head and smiled again, although that time it was a more cryptic expression than the one that preceded it. "Anyway, I do hope for some more opportunities in the future where we can meet as normal individuals—or as normal as a trio of senshi could ever be. But, for now, the main reason I called you two over is because I have some important news I want to share with you."

"I'm very eager to hear what you have to say," Michiru said, turning a quick but utterly fierce glare toward Haruka, who merely shrugged in reply.

"Well…" There were a few seconds of silence during which Setsuna slowly took in and released a deep breath, settling her nervousness in the process. "You cannot reveal anything I'm about to say to anyone, not even to our princess. Do you understand?"

The extreme apprehension her two guests felt was justifiable, but they both slowly nodded, wishing to hear her explanation out of sheer curiosity if nothing else. Upon their answer, she spent a few more moments gazing at her feet, indubitably deep in thought, before slowly turning an intense stare in their direction.

"I will be gone one month from now and there will be no way to contact me, nor will I be able respond to any attacks against our princess. My absence will last for two weeks. As much as I wish to, I cannot tell you where I am going or the precise reason why. It's… just better that I keep it a secret until the time when its revelation is absolutely necessary. But, I need you two to make sure that our princess is absolutely protected during that time."

"That's not anything you'd have to worry about," Haruka said with confidence. "I'll be damned if anything bad happened to my Koneko-chan."

"Is there some specific threat against her?" Michiru's voice was deep and full of worry.

Setsuna hung her head and sighed. "None that I know about, but the Dark Kingdom is always a threat. Sazaratha even more so."

"Nevertheless, we will do whatever we can to ensure Usagi-san's safety," Michiru said.

"Good." A faint smile appeared on Setsuna's lips. "I guess I just needed to get that off of my chest. It has been perturbing me for so long." She stood from her chair and slowly walked behind it. "That's all I really needed to tell you, unless you don't mind staying here and listening to me babble about this guy I met a few days ago."

Her last line, intended as a throwaway statement and delivered so nonchalantly, immediately piqued Michiru's interest. "What guy? How did you two meet?"

"You could say I ran into him as I was getting dinner, though it's more accurate to say that I ran over him instead." She began to chuckle, a feeling of levity that proved infectious when the ocean senshi soon joined her in laughter.

"Hmm… that's quite a unique way of introducing yourself."

"Indeed, though he seemed to take it all in stride. In fact, I would say that he was rather happy for the encounter."

A lively grin spread across Michiru's lips. "Looking at you, I can't say that I blame the guy for feeling that way."

"I fully appreciate the compliment, though I must admit that my appearance is quite different during those times I'm going back and forth from the hospital. Or, to put it another way, I wasn't exactly looking my best then."

"Well, I hear there are some men who find that look more attractive."

Haruka, who until then had paid little attention to their banter, groaned loudly in annoyance as she stood from the sofa. "Sorry. I'll be outside if anyone needs me."

Though it was the sudden movement that initially captured her attention, Michiru was soon drawn to the expression of boredom scrawled across her lover's face, frowning in response. "Oh, don't be that way, Haruka-chan. Setsuna-san's a great hostess and an even better person, and you should be more interested in what she has to say." That grimace disappeared as she turned a telling look to Setsuna while continuing to talk to the blonde. "Besides, there's much more to this conversation than what Setsuna-san's letting on right now, something that I suspect will involve the two of us."

"You're absolutely correct, Michiru-chan. Though I do find Mr. Grayson—that's the name of the gentleman in question—somewhat intriguing, it's not in the way you'd originally suspect given the course of our discussion. After all, it's true that I'm far too busy for dating, and I told him that much."

Haruka shrugged as she looked at Setsuna in confusion. "So, what's he got to do with anything then?"

"Well, after we departed the restaurant I took the liberty of surreptitiously following him. It turned out my suspicion was correct that he was not a visiting businessman as he had claimed." She stopped and took a long sip of her tea before looking at her guests with a far more solemn countenance. "As I told you earlier, the Dark Kingdom is always a threat."

Michiru's eyes immediately widened from shock. "Dark Kingdom?"

"As far as I could tell," Setsuna said with a nod. "Remember that there are a number of normal humans associated with them, as we had seen in our last battle. As such, they don't give off any sort of energy signal as they lack magical powers. However, I felt a weak amount of negative energy emanate from the house he entered, and other nodes of such energy surrounding the place. Those probably come from reconnaissance-type youmas that are keeping watch."

"Do you know where they're located?" Unlike Michiru, Haruka's eyes were narrowed as she felt a new sense of purpose and the impending joy of defeating yet another threat to her princess.

"Certainly. It's a small house located in Adachi—"

Haruka didn't wait for Setsuna to complete her explanation, grabbing her car keys from her pocket as she started for the front door with an impressive gait. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

"Wait, Haruka-chan! Shouldn't we at least hear Setsuna-san out, in case there's more to this besides just a few people in a house?"

"Why? Unless Beryl happens to be there, I doubt any of them would last very long against the three of us."

"Maybe so," Setsuna interjected, her tone far calmer than what either of her guests had presented, "but you'd have to imagine the attention we'd receive when we attack some random house for no apparent reason. The Sailor Senshi murdering a bunch of innocent civilians would not make for good publicity."

"Yeah, but they're not innocent, and I don't care what people will think about us." Haruka's palpable anger, evidenced by her reddening complexion and almost painful grip on her key ring, only grew larger by the second. "I'll be damned if I let those bastards sit around and build strength if I have the chance to stop them now."

Setsuna shook her head but otherwise maintained her composed appearance. "I don't particularly agree with our princess's mantra, but I do believe that right now is not the best time to strike. Besides, Beryl might not be there, but I did feel the aura of someone who might be nearly as strong."

"Sazaratha wouldn't be with them, as she has her own goals that conflict with Beryl's." Consternation initially dominated Michiru's features before it was instead twisted by perplexity. "It certainly can't be Kunzite since he was purified by Usagi-san."

"That's true, and the other Shitennou are either dead or permanently disabled, unless there were more than four," Setsuna said. "That alone is a reason we can't just rush in, since we don't know what we're dealing with."

Haruka emphatically punched her open palm with her fist, but when she loudly exhaled a frustrated sigh a few seconds later it was evident that she had accepted defeat. "Okay, so we can't go after them now. What do we do?"

"Right now, I suggest we keep an eye on them and monitor their activities so we can determine what they're doing here. It probably will be difficult with your racing duties, Michiru-chan's upcoming recital in Belgium—both of which I'm sure will be rousing successes—and my own departure, but I believe that impediment can be overcome."

A glint of deviousness shone in Setsuna's eyes when she turned her gaze to Haruka, one the blonde immediately noticed. That same sentiment shone through in the slightly lower tone she adopted when she spoke once again.

"Oh, and just because we're not going in with guns blazing, so to speak, it doesn't mean we'll idly sit by and allow them to gather strength. There are plenty of ways we can frustrate them without being obvious about our presence or our motivations."

Haruka slowly nodded. "I understand."

A light and yet wholly mischievous smile toyed with Setsuna's lips as she bowed before the other two women. "Anyway, I thank you two once again for coming here, and though I'd sincerely love for you to stay around a bit longer, I have to prepare for work. Granted, my shift does not begin for another few hours, but I think it's good if I went for an early dinner before then." Her grin widened. "Who knows? I might just run into Mr. Grayson again. I'm sure he would consider that worth his while."

—|1|2|**3**|—

_Tired_ was only one of the words that described Minako as she delicately rolled onto her side and ultimately onto her stomach so she could push herself up from the oily ground. The attacks were not horribly menacing to her, and she had seen and felt much, much worse, but the inability to deal a blow against her attacker ensured that the unanswered strikes added up. She winced in agony as she finally made it to her feet. It was a routine that was played out in her mind, one she had just repeated for the eighth time within a ten-minute stretch. It didn't help that she was effectively blind that entire time, or that her vertigo and nausea continued to mount. That was why _aggravated_ also could have described the weary warrior.

The solid blackness that ensconced her began to fade, but it did little to actually help her see the world around her. Instead, everything was blurry to the point that she could hardly recognize anything. The most she could make out was three dark blobs towering over a smaller, lighter-colored blob all against a field of gray and brown. However, it was enough for her to understand what was going on. That smaller blob had to be the young girl, which meant the larger ones were the youmas trying to attack her once again.

"Help me! Please!" she heard the girl fearfully shout.

She inched her way closer to the congregation of monsters. As time progressed her vision steadily improved to the point that she could make out some distinct features. Her hand raced to her mouth to stifle a gasp as she noticed something strange about the creatures attacking that girl. Namely, they clearly were human forms, not the monsters she had expected. If those three were people, then what happened to the youmas? It was a question that she shoved to the back of her mind as she noticed their menacing postures. She swallowed hard and purposefully strode toward the three individuals. They would move away from the girl, by force if necessary. Then she heard the girl scream once again.

"Help! These are the monsters that attacked my parents!"

The blonde skidded to a stop as a bemused expression covered her face. There was no possible way that could have been true. However, she quickly changed her mind when she saw the bodies of all three men emit a brilliant gold light, one that did her poor eyes no favors. When the light dimmed, the figures she saw were only vaguely humanoid in shape, a far cry from what preceded it. The most obvious detail was that they were much taller than any normal human, and she could somewhat see that they were a sickly gray color. She didn't need any more information to know that they were evil and needed to be stopped immediately. Besides, they had blinded her and made her sick to her stomach, and she was not going to let them live for any longer than necessary.

"Venus Love-Me Chain!"

The golden links of pure energy shot from her hands and encircled the three youmas. She aimed the attack high enough so that, when she tightened the lasso around those beings it wouldn't inadvertently capture the girl. The child, for her credit, had enough of her wits about her to scurry away from the monsters, though only to the other side of the alley.

"I'm sick of dealing with evil creatures that stoop low enough to attack children!" Minako's rage, combined with her determination to defeat what she considered the scourge of her existence and do a great deed for the young girl gave her the power to call her ultimate attack.

"Rolling Heart Vibration!"

The intensely glowing multicolored heart leaped from her outstretched arms and corkscrewed toward the hapless youmas. They struggled to free themselves from their bindings but somehow lacked the energy to do so. Whether they expended it all on attacking her or on creating the barriers and oppressing darkness was a question for which she didn't care to learn the answer. All she wanted was to see three dead youmas. When the massively energized heart made contact she was thrilled to know she was not disappointed.

"Yes!" she exclaimed, albeit weakly, as she collapsed to her knees in exhaustion.

Her chain disappeared and its warm energy vanished, but its work was done anyway. For a few seconds she did little more than sit with her eyes closed and breathe heavily, occasionally swallowing hard in an attempt to assuage her nausea. Once she felt sure she was not going to vomit, she languidly turned her head to where she had last seen the girl. Her resulting gasp could be heard from the street. The space was completely empty. The girl was gone.

"_Where did she go? I could swear she was right there? Did she run away the moment I killed those cruel beasts?"_

Suddenly her eyes widened in horror and pallor once again covered her face. She rapidly rose to her feet and swiveled her head about as she began a frantic search of the alleyway.

"_Where are her parents? They should have come back once I defeated those things… right?"_

The question weighed on her throughout her fruitless examination of the passageway. It didn't help that she had no clue what they looked like, and the one person who could assist her with that no longer was there. However, not all hope was lost.

"_Where's that purse and jacket? I could probably find out who they are if there was some form of ID left in either one."_

Strangely, when she returned to the spot where she remembered initially finding the little girl, there was nothing there. There was no purse, and there was no jacket either. She tilted her head slightly to the side as confusion once again washed over her.

"_Did she take them? I swear they were right here."_

She was forced to shelve any further consideration of that issue as she had yet another recollection, one that was prompted by the distant sound of a ringing bell. It reminded her of the bell from her school, which in turn caused her to nearly have a heart attack.

"Oh my God! I'm completely late for math class! And we have a test today too. _Dammit_!"

She hurried out of the alley, making sure to remove her transformation before she broke the threshold. The probability of her making it to the room in time for her to actually be allowed in and take the exam with her classmates was zero. However, that didn't mean she would not try to make it back to her school in record time. There always was a chance of her faking some kind of ailment and getting an official excuse from the school's nurse. She would do anything to avoid the inevitable agony that disappointing her mother with a failing grade would bring her.

_Chapter 9 published June 20, 2013._


End file.
